Migration Category: Campus Old Site

New Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances are taking college campuses across the country by storm. FMLAs are beginning to mobilize feminists, train new leaders, and change the political climate on their campuses! Big feminist welcome to the new FMLAs at WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY, WINONA STATE (MN), MCNEESE STATE (LA), and SALEM INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY (WV).

UC IRVINE’S Feminists Leaders for Equality and Empowerment, a new FMF Affiliate, has organized several events as an affiliate and plan on collecting 500 petitions to make Emergency Contraception available Over-the-Counter.

The new Leadership Alliance at CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE in Ohio started their group with a bang this semester! CUYAHOGA FMLA activist Bridget Tharp wrote a feminist editorial that appeared on the front page of the campus paper, THE VOICE, and shored up support for the group.

NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY Associated Students for Women’s Issues, an FMF affiliate, sent a representative to the Never Go Back National Student Leadership Conference in DC for the 30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade as well as a sizeable delegation to the Southwest Feminist Leadership Institute in the FMF Los Angeles area office.

We can’t wait to hear of the groups’ successes this semester! Learn more about starting a Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance chapter on your campus and about affiliating your group with the Feminist Majority Foundation, http://www.feministcampus.org/launch_process.asp.

On March 1st and 2nd, more than 100 Leadership Alliance and affiliate activists from over 26 campuses in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas traveled to the FMF Los Angeles area office to participate in the first ever FMF Southwest Feminist Leadership Institute.

Keynote speaker Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers and long time feminist and labor rights leader, led a call to action, rallying the packed room of student leaders with chants of “Si Se Puede!” (Spanish for “Yes we can!”). Huerta also shared mass mobilization strategies and tips from her decades of experience organizing migrant workers across the country.

Other speakers included California pre-Roe v. Wade abortion rights pioneers, Elizabeth Canfield and Dr. Gale Anderson, as well as Mavis Leno, Chair of the Campaign to Help Afghan Women and Girls, Katherine Spillar, FMF Executive Vice President, Dr. Olga Lazin, UCLA Globalization and Feminist Studies faculty, and Nohelia Canales, 1996 Stop-Prop 209 affirmative action campaign organizer.

The Institute brought together feminists seeking to establish their own Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance at their school! The following campuses are beginning to form their founding core membership and plan on hosting first general interest meetings by the semester’s end: ANTELOPE VALLEY COLLEGE, CAL STATE-DOMINGUEZ HILLS, CLAREMONT COLLEGE, CAL POLY POMONA, CAL STATE-LONG BEACH, OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE, PITZER COLLEGE, SANTA MONICA COLLEGE, SCRIPPS COLLEGE, UC IRVINE, and UCLA. We can’t wait to hear of the activism and recruitment successes of these new groups!

FMLAs and affiliates represented at the Institute include: CERRITOS COLLEGE, CAL STATE-FULLERTON, CAL STATE-LOS ANGELES, SAN FRANCISCO STATE, CAL STATE-SACRAMENTO, FULLERTON COLLEGE, NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY, UC SAN DIEGO, UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA – RENO, USC, and the UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS – EL PASO (UTEP). UTEP FMLA leader Gabriela Montoya came all the way from El Paso, Texas by bus-take about determination!

This Institute is the first of many Leadership Alliance and campus events to take place in the new FMF conference space and made quite an impact with students. According to Colleen Lucey, core member of the up-and-coming FMLA at OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE in Los Angeles, “It really put focus into what we can do as a feminist group on campus to support reproductive rights. Plus, I networked with many activists from all over the southwest; it was an invaluable experience.”

Pictures from the event will be posted online soon – we’ll keep you posted!

The CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY FMLA researched Emergency Contraception availability at their campus health center and discovered that their clinic couldn’t offer Emergency Contraception kits like Plan B because the center has no medical staff. The group was able to get around this by working with the clinic to provide birth control cocktails for emergency contraception! After getting Emergency Contraception on their campus, the group organized EC over-the-counter petition drive and a teach-in on EC. The group then publicized it’s availability through flyering on campus and a letter to the editor for the CWSU campus newspaper, which garnered much positive feedback. To date, the group has collected over 300 signatures for the EC OTC campaign. Great work!

FMLAs across the country are rapidly mobilizing support to make Emergency Contraception available Over the Counter through the ECOTC Campaign Petition Drive.

The MARSHALL UNIVERSITY Women’s Studies StudentAssociation, an FMF affiliate, collected 250 EC OTC petitions. Deborah Gallanger, a UCLA FMLA core member, single-handedly collected 265 ECOTC petitions as well as 95 signatures of interest in the FMLA during an anti-war walkout on campus last week.

The DUKE UNIVERSITY FMLA has committed to collecting 500 petitions by March 20 and is planning a “dorm storm” to educate all first year women about EC. They are also producing a brochure describing what EC is and how to access it on campus.

FMLAs, Affiliates, and other feminists on over 33 campuses have pledged to raise 500-2,000 petition signatures including groups from AUBURN UNIVERSITY, BOSTON UNIVERSITY, BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY, BROWN UNIVERSITY, CAL POLY POMONA, CALIFORNIA STATE LONG BEACH, CASE WESTERN UNIVERSITY, CERRITOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE, DUKE UNIVERSITY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY – BLOOMINGTON, MARSHALL UNIVERSITY, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO STATE, SUNY-NEW PALTZ, TEXAS WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY, TULANE UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – IRVINE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – LOS ANGELES, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN DIEGO, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS – AMHERST, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN – ANN ARBOR, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA – TWIN CITIES, UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA – RENO, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – GREEN BAY, VASSAR COLLEGE, WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY, YALE UNIVERSITY and more!

Sign the petition online, tell your friends about the petition, and help get EC on your campus, http://www.feministcampus.org/prescribechoice/ecotc.asp

The PENNSYLVANIA STATE FMLA collected over 1200 Never Go Back petitions and is hosting a Multicultural Women’s Day this week. Each student organization is invited to make a poster representing a woman whose accomplishments or life they want to celebrate, and then they are marching through campus.

To commemorate International Women’s Day, the EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY FMLA hosted a screening of the Never Go Back Campaign Video. The SPELMAN COLLEGE FMLA is planning an “FMLA week” of fun feminist events, kicked off by a Never Go Back Tour Stop with FMF President Eleanor Smeal as the special guest speaker.

Check out upcoming Never Go Back celebrity tour stops, http://www.nevergoback.org/tour.asp.

The UC SAN DIEGO Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance collected 800 Never Go Back authorization petitions. The group has set a goal of collecting 5000 petitions to send to California Senator Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, with petitioning strategies such as tabling once a week in a different location on campus and varying their tabling style each time (ie: one week will feature ribbons to remember women who lost their lives to illegal abortion, Never Go Back buttons another week, a feminist raffle for people who sign, etc.) The group also plans on building bridges between different groups, inviting progressive student organizations to sign and share with membership. Among many other outreach and publicity strategies, the group also plans on targeting local community groups, such as their local NOW chapter, making presentations at their meetings and collecting signatures afterwards. Great ideas!

The UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance hosted a successful run of the Vagina Monologues with close to 1,800 people attending two performances. The group raised $14,000 for a local domestic violence organization. After organizing performances for the past three years, the group has raised a total of $37,000 for programs and organizations dedicated to eliminating violence against women. Great job! With strong publicity and press efforts, the MARSHALL UNIVERSITY (WV) Women’s Studies Student Association, an FMF affiliate, raised consciousness on campus and over $5000 for their local domestic violence shelter. The UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – MILWAUKEE FMF Affiliate raised $3,000 with their entertaining rendition of the Vagina Monologues. The KUTZTOWN FMLA (PA) raised $6000 and attracted 1600 people with their performances.

Please join us at throughout March as we continue our online chat series on “Reproductive Rights Under G.W. Bush: We Won’t Go Back!”

March 27, 3-4 pm SHARYN TEJANI, FMF Legal Director On abortion clinic safety after NOW v. Scheidler – how will the recent Supreme Court decision that found in favor of anti-abortion extremists affect providers and patients?

http://www.feministcampus.org/chat/march03_reprorights.asp

Along with 186 cosponsors, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into the 108th Congress yesterday. With the goal of having a vote on the legislation sometime this year, Maloney introduced the ERA in order to launch a renewed effort to secure equal rights for women under the Constitution.

“The ERA is gaining momentum, and 2003 should be its year to come of age. Most Americans believe that the Constitution already makes it clear that men and women are entitled to equal rights, and when they learn it does not, nine out of ten Americans believe it should,” said Congresswoman Maloney in a statement.

The ERA, written by women’s rights pioneer Alice Paul, was introduced in every session of Congress from 1923 until it was approved in 1972. However, in order for the ERA to become the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution it had to then be ratified by 38 states with a ten-year deadline. Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, led the drive to ratify the ERA from 1972-1982. The ERA was ratified in 35 states, just three states short.

“We must keep introducing the ERA until women win equality,” Smeal said. “As the Bush administration continues to turn back the clock on women’s rights, the ERA is needed now more than ever. Without a constitutional guarantee, the progress women have made over the past 30 years is endangered.”

Rep. Maloney’s move to reintroduce the ERA was preceded last week with another bold step forward. On the eve of International Women’s Day, Maloney and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) announced legislation that would appropriate $134 million – $50 million for 2003 and $84 million for 2004 – to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Last year, President Bush withdrew $34 million in funds for UNFPA, despite Secretary of State Colin Powell’s earlier endorsement of the agency’s “invaluable work.” The result cut 13 percent of funding for the UNFPA’s international family planning programs, which would have enabled the UNFPA to prevent two million unwanted pregnancies, 4,700 maternal deaths, nearly 60,000 cases of maternal illnesses and over 77,000 cases of infant and child death. SENATE COMMITTEE APPROVES SUTTON; ESTRADA DEBATE CONTINUES

For more on this story and the latest feminist news, visit www.feminist.org.

LEARN MORE Click here to read women’s narratives about barriers or successes in accessing reproductive health and family planning services.

Please join us for the seventeenth annual conference for student and community activists, From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom on April 4-6, 2003 at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. The multi-issue conference will commence on Friday, April 4th at 4pm and will end at noon on Sunday, April 6th.

The weekend will include an abortion speak out, performances, a networking reception, and over 25 workshops on topics such as abortion access, human rights, population control, international women’s health, immigration, art and activism, welfare, globalization, spirituality, sex education, and caring for ourselves as activists.

The conference is open to everyone and is intended as a forum for learning and networking for all ages, experiences and background knowledge. The conference is free wheelchair accessible, and housing, childcare and sign language interpretation are available with advance registration.

The conference is sponsored by the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program and the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College. For more info, call us at 413-559-5416 or e-mail at clpp@hampshire.edu or check out our website at http://hamp.hampshire.edu/~clpp.

The Oxfam America Collegiate Click Drive is an online competition between students and alumni across the country to generate free donations to support micro credit programs worldwide on behalf of their school. By the end of last year’s competition, a national network of over 250 participating schools in 43 states and Washington DC. Approximately 112,000 donations generated $28,000 in support of micro credit programs across the globe. The winning school, Birmingham-Southern College, raised $3,410.25.

Each click on www.PovertyFighters.com generates a 25¢ donation, paid for by the site’s sponsors. The current financial sponsors are Calvert Funds, Novica, and the Greenstar Foundation. The money raised is distributed through the Calvert Foundation to micro credit providers all over the world. Recipients are chosen in conjunction with the Micro Credit Summit in accordance with their dedication to provide access to micro credit to 100 million of the world’s poorest families, especially the women in those families, by the year 2005.

To generate a donation, individuals visit www.PovertyFighters.org, register under a college and click. Each computer is allowed to make two donations a day. Information about micro credit and the Click Drive are available through www.Poverty Fighters.com. For more information, contact clickcontact@yahoo.com.

FMLA students are invited to attend a free special screening of “Bend it Like Beckham,” the new film from award-winning writer/director Gurinder Chadha. The film mixes a kaleidoscope of color and culture as they clash humorously as an Indian family in London tries to raise their soccer-playing daughter Jess in a traditional way. To find the screening times and locations for a local screening in your community, email Melissa Silverstein at Melissa@foxsearchlight.com.

The UC SAN DIEGO FMLA created a Global Women’s History Month display that was featured in the campus newspaper. According to Corrine Hart, an FMLA Leader, the group made an impact on campus, “and got a lot of positive feedback about how good the display looked. Also, during this month, the group raised over $300 selling their trademark “Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance” t-shirts. The SFSU FMLA worked with Planned Parenthood to help send condoms to African nations facing the AIDS crisis.

Join the Feminist Majority Foundation in a special chat series, Global Women’s Voices: Focus on HIV/AIDS, http://www.feministcampus.org/chat/globalvoices03.

March 19, 3-4 pm SOPHIA MUKASA MONICO, Global Health Council March 26, 3-4 pm ASIA RUSSELL, Health Global Access Project

Global Women’s Voices: Focus on HIV/AIDS is a joint initiative of OneWorld U.S., Feminist Majority Foundation, StopGlobalAIDS, Global Health Council, Amnesty International USA, PLANetWIRE.org and Women’s EDGE.

LEARN MORE Click here to read women’s narratives about barriers or successes in accessing reproductive health and family planning services.

The Feminist Majority Foundation’s Never Go Back campaign to save abortion rights is in full swing. To date, Gillian Anderson, Amy Brenneman, Tyne Daly, Laura Dern, Morgan Fairchild, Whoopi Goldberg, Ashley Judd, Wendie Malick, Camryn Manheim, Kathy Najimy, and Cybil Shepard have all signed on as campaign spokeswomen. Thanks to activists across the country, we have already delivered a few thousand signed letters to Senators demanding that they filibuster any US Supreme Court nominee who will not uphold a woman’s fundamental, constitutional right to safe, legal abortion.

To join the Never Go Back Campaign or for more information, visit WWW.NEVERGOBACK.ORG.

The PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY FMLA has collected 1200 Never Go Back (NGB) authorization petition signatures! The UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – EAU CLAIRE FMLA Affiliate is planning on making class announcements in all the Women’s Studies classes once every month or two to gather support for the Never Go Back campaign and educate on the threats to legal abortion.

The FULLERTON COLLEGE FMLA set up a canopy in the main Quad on their campus and collected Never Go Back petitions as well as distributed buttons, stickers, and facts from the campaign. The group invited a Planned Parenthood representative to speak about abortion. FMLA members also brought attention to their event by wearing signs around their necks and setting up stakes all around the quad with facts on the threats to legal abortion from the NGB campaign materials.

Feminists at NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY screened the Never Go Back video on their campus. The UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO FMLA is joining forces with the Minority Women’s Feminist Group in educating and mobilizing their campus on the threats to Roe v. Wade by tabling with Never Go Back campaign materials. The FMLA at BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY held a Rock For Choice concert to celebrate Roe v. Wade’s 30th anniversary, raising nearly $700!

Download petitions, fact sheets, sample letters to your Senator and more campaign materials online at http://www.nevergoback.org/volunteer/#materials. Contact a member of the Campus Team at campusteam@feminist.org for more ideas!

The TEXAS WOMAN’S UNIVERSITY FMLA organized a potluck dinner for Roe v. Wade and screened a pro-choice film for an audience of several dozen students. The UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA – TWIN CITIES FMLA begins volunteering as clinic escorts in March. The GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY FMLA attended the Washington Area Clinic Defense Task Force(WACDTF) training the weekend before the Roe Anniversary to protect abortion access through volunteer clinic escorting.

Working with their local Planned Parenthood, the CORNELL UNIVERSITY FMLA Affiliate, SAGE, organized a letter writing session to NY senators about abortion and reproductive rights issues. They also organized a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Roe with a lecture addressing what is was like for women before Roe v. Wade as well as current threats to the abortion.

The UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN — GREEN BAY FMLA is recognizing women’s sports by creating and showcasing women in sports in a display on campus.

The first Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance in Kansas – BUTLER COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE – is making headlines on their campus with an article featuring the mission and principles of the group. The group is getting off the ground and recruiting feminists for an exciting year of pro-choice activism. The FMLA is breaking ground at the campus. Sonja Milbourn, a founding faculty member of the group, calls the FMLA the campus’s first social activist group. Great work!

The WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY FMLA organized a V-Day celebration with chocolate vaginas. The FMLA at Kutztown (PA) is producing the Vagina Monologues.

The CONNECTICUT COLLEGE FMLA organized a Valentines Day Safe Sex Campaign, working with the Peer Educators to distribute condoms on Valentines Day. The Peer Educators provided the condoms, and the FMLA put together cards with information on where to get contraception on campus. Because of the FMLA’s efforts, every CONNECTICUT COLLEGE student will find a condom and contraception card in their mailbox on Valentines Day!

In conjunction with a campus production of the Vagina Monologues, the BOSTON UNIVERSITY Women’s Center, an FMLA affiliate, is facilitating a talk back, poetry slam, and a presentation of the Clothesline Project to raise awareness about violence against women. The Women’s Center Talk-Back will be held on Tuesday, March 4, with speakers from Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and Transition House domestic violence center.

The UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – MILWAUKEE affiliate has organized a performance of the Vagina Monologues on campus. The University of North Texas has organized a series of publicity and fundraising events to benefit local the Vagina Monologues production, including an art show and garage sale. They plan on mobilizing support for the Emergency Contraception Over-the-Counter petition drive during these and other events.

The SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY FMLA and the Women’s Resource Center are co-sponsoring their campus performance of The Vagina Monologues that will entertain, uplift, and educate students on campus during Women’s History Month. The GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY POWER of Women, an FMLA affiliate, is organizing a campus production of the Vagina Monologues. The USC FMLA will be tabling throughout the week of their campus Vagina Monologues performance in order to use the events to mobilize support for their group and for pro-choice education and activism.

The UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – RIVER FALLS FMLA Affiliate is organizing a Take Back the Night march and rally to support women’s safety on campus and raise awareness of the preponderance of violence against women on campus.

The ST. MARY’S COLLEGE OF MARYLAND FMLA discovered recently that their school reported zero sexual assaults last year and in response, the FMLA has been working with Campus Safety to produce a new sexual assault brochure that lists resources for sexual assault survivors and details the process of reporting a sexual assault.

The GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY FMLA is preparing for their upcoming V-Week, a week of events on women’s sexual health and empowerment. Events include a panel on Female Genital Mutilation, an anti-sexual assault workshop, and a special talk by the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Medical Director Dr. Beth Jordan on women’s sexual health. The week will end with an FMLA organized campus production of the Vagina Monologues.

On March 20, the Women’s Capital Corporation will be formally submitting their application to the FDA to make Plan B – a brand of emergency contraception – available over-the-counter. It is imperative that we deliver thousands of petition signatures to the FDA on March 20 demanding that women be able to access EC without a prescription. Now is the time to step up your campus petitioning efforts. Be sure to mail your petitions to the Feminist Majority Foundation by March 18!

Sign the petition and circulate far and wide, http://www.feministcampus.org/prescribechoice/ecotc.asp

Isioma Daniel catapulted into the international spotlight after she published an article in the Lagos-based Nigerian newspaper “This Day,” on the 2002 Miss World Pageant scheduled to be held in Nigeria. Isioma Daniel talks about her writing on the Ms. World ’02 Contest, riots that followed, and the ‘fatwa’ against her. Check out her amazing chat with FeministCampus.org students, http://www.feministcampus.org/chat/chat_isiomadaniel02132003.asp.