Migration Category: Campus Old Site

At the height of this crucial election period, Leadership Alliances nationwide continue to mobilize voters on campus with non-partisan voter registration drives! The Leadership Alliance at Case Western registered 100 student voters, Kutztown Leadership Alliance registered over 200 new voters, and Eastern Tennessee State University Leadersehip Alliance registered 300 students to vote! Congratulations to these and other Leadership Alliances who are mobilizing voters on campus and empowering their peers to make a difference this election year! Contact the FMF Campus Team for materials and help with innovative non-partisan election activities on your campus and click here for more info.

Last week, the Brandeis Leadership Alliance held a coffee house fundraiser for FMF’s Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan. Their group charged a donation at the door and featured a performance by local feminist folk rock singer, Kate Schutt. At the end of the night, the Brandeis Leadership Alliance raised 540 dollars that will go to support Afghan girls’ schools and education! The Brandeis Leadership Alliance is a co-sponsor of FMF’s Back to School Campaign.

For more information on how to join the Back to School Campaign and support women and girls’ education in Afghanistan, go to https://feminist.org/afghan/back2school.asp

In Afghanistan, $60 supplies notebooks, pencils, and pencil sharpeners for 300 students, 20$ pays for a classroom chalkboard, 36$ pays one teacher’s monthly salary, and $500 pays for the cost of teachers, books, and materials for a home school for 90 girls for six months!

Leadership Alliances are organizing effective actions on their campus that range from protests against anti-choice groups to domestic violence awareness activism.

Fight the Backlash! The Truman State Leadership Alliance held a successful counter-rally to the anti-choice Chain of Life on the main highway in Kirksville, MO. The Leadership Alliance at Sacramento State worked with their local NOW chapter to counter the Promise Keepers’ anti-choice rallies and received local TV news coverage.

Organize to end violence against women! The Leadership Alliances at Marietta College and University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) are organizing Domestic Violence campaigns in their community.

Get the word out on campus! Three members of the UMCP Leadership Alliance run a weekly feminist radio show and will interview an FMF staff member about mifepristone. The Leadership Alliance at Illinois Wesleyan and Juniata both conducted successful “Did you Know” Campaigns on their campus about feminism and sexual orientation.

Just because we organize on a grassroots level doesn’t mean we can’t get active on-line! The Brown, U of Missouri St. Louis, and Stony Brook Leadership Alliance are all online and you can check out the newly constructed web sites at www.feministcampus.org/ac_campusoffices.asp. Interested in setting up an online office for your group? Contact the Campus Online Coordinator at Debbie@feminist.org

National Young Women’s Day of Action (NYWDA) is October 25th. This Year, NYWDA will feature a new grassroots campaign, C.A.R.E. 2000, the Campaign for Access and Reproductive Equity. C.A.R.E. 2000 is a two-year, multi-issue, grassroots public education effort to increase awareness of prohibitive federal and state legislation impacting the reproductive health of low-income women, women of color, and young women. The Feminist Majority Foundation is a leading coalition partner and co-sponsor for the C.A.R.E Campaign. If your Leadership Alliance would like to sign on as co-sponsor of this important campaign and participate in C.A.R.E. 2000 activities this year on NYWDA, please fill out the enclosed form and contact a member of the Campus Team.

As students return to school for the Fall Semester, Leadership Alliances nationwide are mobilizing voters on campus with non-partisan voter registration drives! The University of North Texas Leadership Alliance and the Northeastern Illinois University Leadership Alliance had members deputized by the state election commission to legally register voters on-site. Many other Leadership Alliances have begun to encourage voter registration on their campus and will also help take voters to the polls. Keep up the great work! Contact the FMF Campus Team for materials and help with innovative election activities on your campus.

Visit http://www.feministcampus.org/voter.asp for more information on voter registration and election-activities on campus.

*NOTE* As a 501c3 organization, the Feminist Majority Foundation is non-partisan and cannot participate in campaigns. Therefore, as a part of your activities with the FMLA, you cannot be involved in any campaigns. However, as individual citizens you can participate in the election campaigns in any way you like.

Last week, the New College Leadership Alliance organized a demonstration to support the Sarasota Women’s Health Clinic, which is repeatedly harassed by anti-choice picketers who with enormous graphic posters. The group mobilized over 40 pro-choice activists who dwarfed the small gathering of anti-choice picketers. Members Carly Earnshaw and Britt Dunn were interviewed by the Sarasota News Network, which aired the pro-choice demonstration as the top news story of the day! The group will continue to work with the Clinic and mobilize community support to send a strong message to the that harassment and violence against women’s health clinics will not be tolerated.

For more info on strategies to protect women’s access to abortion services, please read Unit 3 of the Study and Action Manual (www.feministcampus.org/sam3.asp) and contact a Field Representative toll-free at 866-444-FMLA or email us at CampusTeam@feminist.org.

The FMF Campus Team now has a toll free number to make it even easier for you to contact us! Call any member of the Field Team at 1-866-444-FMLA.

As students return to school for the Fall Semester, Leadership Alliances nationwide are boosting membership with innovative recruitment strategies! Congratulations to Brandeis University and Brown University Leadership Alliances, who both kicked-off the year by recruiting over 100 students during their student activities fairs! Leadership Alliance members at New College and Saint Mary’s College both hosted successful general interest meetings with over 40 people present. Many other Leadership Alliances have begun their intensive two-week membership drives, and are planning to host General Interest Meetings by the end of the month. Keep up the great work! Contact the FMF Campus Team for materials and help with recruitment on your campus. http://www.feministcampus.org/recruitment.asp

Jesse Mostipak, President of Brandeis University Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, was recently interviewed by the Boston Globe, voicing her opposition to the Taliban’s brutal treatment of women in Afghanistan. The Brandeis University Leadership Alliance is one of over 69 action groups that have joined FMF’s recently launched Back To School Campaign. This latest campaign is aimed at improving educational opportunities for Afghan women and girls through scholarships to U.S. universities, an adopt-a-school project to support clandestine home schools for girls in Afghanistan and refugee camp schools in Pakistan, and a petition drive to pressure the U.S. and U.N. to increase aid to the region. To get involved, contact a Field Representative today. https://feminist.org/afghan/back2school.asp

FMF in the Boston Globe 9/1/00 http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/245/nation/A_fight_for_knowledge+.shtml

Texas Tech Leadership Alliance spoke out against anti-abortion media on their campus last week. After viewing a deceptive anti-choice cartoon in the campus newspaper, the group wrote a Letter to the Editor exposing the misleading information in the cartoon, and expressing the importance of reproductive choice. Good work! For ideas on how to fight anti-choice backlash and promote a pro-choice message on your campus, click here.

While mifepristone may be approved at the end of September, the FDA is currently discussing restrictions on the drug’s distribution that may severely limit women’s access to this medical breakthrough. The FDA is reportedly considering onerous and medically unnecessary restrictions that could drastically limit its distribution, possibly even threaten the safety of physicians, and ultimately derail the development of the drug’s non-abortion indications such as the treatment of ovarian cancer, fibroid tumors, meningioma, and endometriosis. Demand that mifepristone be approved without restrictions and sign this on-line petition! https://feminist.org/action/1_action.html

Production of Louisiana state license plates with the phrase “choose life” have been blocked by Federal District Judge Stanwood Richardson Duval Jr. Judge Duval ruled that the state was violating free speech provisions of the Constitution by producing license plates expressing only one side of the abortion debate. https://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=2600

As your Leadership Alliance begins the semester, don’t forget to develop a concrete plan of action for recruitment and your general interest meeting! Contact the FMF Campus Team for recruitment strategies and materials for your membership drive! Leadership AlliancesÑlook in the mail for your back to school packet including your charter for the 2000-2001 school year!

Feminists for Life, an anti-abortion organization, will launch a misleading and deceptive college advertising campaign this fall asking college-aged women to “question choice” and challenge abortion as the “status quo.” Under the guise of promoting choice for women, these deceptively worded ads actually advocate an anti-abortion stance. Watch out for these ads on your campus. Be pro-active and promote the pro-choice message using FREE educational ads from the Pro-Choice Public Educations Project (PEP)!

Contact the FMF Campus Team if you see these ads in your school newspaper, and want to create a pro-choice voice on your campus!

The Campus Program is an official sponsor of V-Day 2000! Launched on Valentine’s Day in 1998 with a benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues, the Obie-award winning play by Eve Ensler, V-Day is a movement to stop violence against women. By taking part in the V-Day 2001 College initiative, your school will join over 150 colleges worldwide by performing The Vagina Monologues. All proceeds from the performance are donated to a local organization working to stop violence against women. For more information on how to get involved, check out http://www.feminist.com/vday/.

Leadership Alliances are also a co-sponsor of First Monday, a national day of action against gun violence on October 2, 2000. Campuses and communities across the nation will host speakers, vigils, and rallies to educate and mobilize around this important issue. To get involved on your campus, contact Joni Kletter at joni@afj.org and visit http://www.firstmonday2000.com. Also check out FMF’s National Center for Women and Policing at www.feminist.org to learn about FMF’s strategies to reduce violence.

Now on over 100 campuses across the nation and growing stronger, the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance Program is better than ever! New membership benefits for your group include an alumnae program, improved Take Action Kits for your Alliance to utilize throughout the year, and an awards program to better recognize your group’s achievements! Over the next few weeks, your Leadership Alliance will receive a Back To School Packet highlighting these and many other developments.

FMF would like to welcome on board the 2000-2001 Campus Team! A fantastic group of activists with great organizing experience and expertise in reproductive choice and many other important feminist issues, the members of the team include: Ardie Hollifield from UNC Asheville; Meghan Renfrew from Cornell U; Leena Mittal from Johns Hopkins U; Virginia Ramos from Swarthmore College; Heather Holliger from American U; Stacey Schesser from Rutgers U/Douglass; and Sirena Riley from U MD College Park. Get to know the Campus Team! Contact a Field Representative NOW to discuss your group’s plan of action for the year. We are trained experts in campus organizing, and can provide you with innovative ideas and materials for the new school year! Email us at Campusteam@feminist.org!

We are excited to announce that several Leadership Alliances from North East (NE) Region are beginning to make plans to get together in the Fall for a NE Regional Meeting! To join this meeting, or learn how to organize and network with other campuses in your region, contact a member of the Campus Team today!