Campus Activism: What's Hot for Back-to-School

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For Immediate Release

Campus Activism: What's Hot for Back-to-School

EMS Offers a Guide to the Top Issues, Protests and Students

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 -/E-Wire/-- National forests, international trade protocols and coffee farmers in Latin America will be at the top of the list for campus activists this fall. Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, protesting World Bank policies and getting dining halls to go vegan are also among the nationwide campaigns students will undertake.

College students have wholeheartedly embraced activism again. And Environmental Media Services has put together a guide to the hot issues on campus this fall and contacts on campus, at http://www.ems.org.

Much of this activism focuses not just on government actions â the focus of earlier generations â but on corporations and corporate accountability. This is seen in the nationwide efforts to end Boise Cascade's use of old growth wood and work to ensure that free trade benefits the world's poorest citizens. The sophistication of student activism has increased as well as the volume.

Thousands of students are expected to descend on Washington, D.C., to participate in protests and teach-ins during the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings at the end of September.

"When I got involved (five years ago), we were this scrappy band of student environmentalists," says Oberlin College senior Dave Karpf. "A lot more people are involved now and they take what they do very seriously â it's very professional."

Across the country this summer, thousands of students attended leadership training sessions and workshops on conducting grassroots campaigns, political strategy and working with the media. Armed with this training, they head back to campus ready to enact high-visibility campaigns on a variety of issues.

The dining hall, surprisingly, is the center of much activism. Recent student efforts have succeeded in getting campus dining services to offer fair trade coffee and vegetarian and vegan meals, with more campuses targeted this fall. Student protests in at least two schools have prompted college administrators to sever ties with the largest campus food service company, Marriott Food Services, because its parent company also owns the Corrections Corporation of America, the controversial for-profit prison operator.

"I think we're seeing greater sophistication in activism," says Aaron Gross, a part-time Harvard student and the college coordinator for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "There's a lot better organization, better grassroots and national advocacy."

And colleges are leveraging their purchasing power to buy only recycled and sustainably harvested wood products, thanks to the Tree Free Campus campaign and other student efforts.

"The Sierra Student Coalition is taking up forest protection as one of its priority national campaigns this year," says Jim Steitz, a senior at Utah State University. "On the consumer side, our goal is to rid all institutions, university and otherwise, of Boise Cascade products."

President Bush's numerous efforts to roll back environmental protections will no doubt spur more students to action this year as well. As soon as students get back to campus, they will work to gather comments before the Sept. 10 deadline for public input on the Bush administration's efforts to limit the new roadless area protection rule in national forests. Working to get the Senate to ban drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will also be top-priority.

"Every student in the Sierra Student Coalition is going to drop whatever they're doing to make sure the refuge does not get drilled," says Karpf, a member of the group's executive committee. "If we can't stop (Bush) there, where can we stop him?"

For more information, go to http://www.ems.org.

Environmental Media Services

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