Third Wave wants your ideas on organizing and activism for an anthology on violence against women in the U.S. The book will be by and for young women activists with a combination of theoretical and experiential perspectives on activism and community organizing. Email questions to thirdwavevaw@hotmail.com and join the discussion online.
Migration Category: Campus Old Site
FMF Campus Team Welcomes New Leadership Alliances!
Feminists Unite! Currently, we are working with hundreds of groups and thousands of pro-choice activists. We welcome new Leadership Alliances from ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY-WEST, ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY, INDIANA UNIVERSITY-PURDUE FORT WAYNE, OGELTHORPE UNIVERSITY (GA), and SOUTHWEST TEXAS STATE UNIVERSITY. Congratulations to all of the new FMLAs! Check out all of the groups currently participating in the Choices Campaign!
FMF Prescribe Choice Campaign in Full Swing
Last month, FMF launched the Prescribe Choice campaign to increase campus availability of emergency contraception (EC) and mifepristone. Hundreds of groups have already received our campaign action kits and the online requests at www.prescribechoice.com continue to pour in!
As a part of their Prescribe Choice actions, the TEXAS TECH Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance celebrated the one-year anniversary of the approval of mifepristone by organizing a mifepristone and EC public education campaign. Within the first hour of tabling, the group distributed over 200 information kits with facts on EC, mifepristone, and family planning. According to Jessica Patton, TTU FMLA President, the event was a huge success, “I think that the faculty and students of TEXAS TECH will learn that FMLA has a voice and we’re going to be heard!” Great work!
Learn more about EC and mifepristone, take action and download or request a Prescribe Choice action kit for your group!
Leadership Alliances Gear Up for a New Semester of Feminist Activism
Last month, members of the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance attended an awards ceremony and met with the directors of and faculty in the Gender Studies Department and the Center for Feminist Research. FMLA President Maryanna Abdo was later interviewed by USC’s campus television station on the events of 9/11 and the need for humanitarian aid for women and girls of Afghanistan. Abdo also used the interview as an opportunity to publicize the group’s upcoming Prescribe Choice actions. The NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance recently garnered press for their critical role in establishing the Women’s Studies Department at NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS and for their activism during Women’s Health week last September. The paper lauded the group’s work, stating that “the recent activities of FMLA… have played an important role in bringing about key changes and important new services on campus.”
Special Message from FMF’s Campus Team
Welcome back to campus!
Your pro-choice feminist activism this year is crucial as women’s rights and abortion rights are increasingly under attack. We must organize and educate to protect our hard-won rights. This fall, we can significantly increase women’s reproductive healthcare services and women’s voting power. FMF’s Get Out Her Vote campaign will allow you to join thousands of young feminists across the country in mobilizing a strong youth voice at the polls this November.
We have a number of new and exciting campaigns and resources for Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances and affiliates, including new Choices initiatives that are now online.
FMF Launches the Prescribe Choice Campaign
Currently, Yale University is the only college health center that offers mifepristone (formerly, RU-486), and many young women are still unable to obtain emergency contraception (EC) on campus. This fall, FMF will kick off Prescribe Choice, a nationwide campaign to increase campus availability of EC and mifepristone. Join the national network of student activists working to educate and increase access to reproductive healthcare on their campuses!
Visit www.prescribechoice.org to request or download a Prescribe Choice Action Kit with fact sheets, EC and mifepristone wallet cards, and find other ways to take action.
Leadership Alliance Awarded for Excellence
Congratulations to the GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance for being recognized as the best progressive group on campus!!! The group was recognized for their excellence in visibility, events, attendance, and efficacy. The FMLA at CERRITOS COMMUNITY COLLEGE also garnered an award for campus Club of the Year for the third year in a row! Cerritos Community College’s Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance established in 1998, has received the award every year since its charter.
FMLA Activists Participate in Back-to-School Campaign for Women in Afghanistan
Before the Taliban militia came to power in 1996, women and girls made up 50% of the university student population and 70% of all school teachers. Soon after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, however, they banned women and girls from attending school. Today, Afghan women students and teachers risk their lives daily to run clandestine schools, and in most cases, are unable to receive any education under penalty of death. Last September, the Feminist Majority Foundation launched the Back to School Campaign to promote educational opportunities to Afghan women and girls, and increase pressure on the US and the UN to restore the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Already the campaign boasts over 600 action teams including Feminist Majority Leadership Alliances, Affiliates, and Choices activists from BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY (MA), MARIETTA COLLEGE (OH), UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY, SPELMAN COLLEGE, QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY, SUNY STONY BROOK, RUTGERS (NY), UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MILWAUKEE, EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, VANDERBILT, UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND (OR), WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY, OGELTHORPE UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY, TEXAS A&M, COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, and NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY (IL). The CORNELL UNIVERSITY FMLA AFFILIATE
Students Acting for Gender Equality (SAGE) is organizing a forum on gender apartheid in Afghanistan. For more information about the Cornell event, contact Tamara Stover. You can take direct action on your campus to help Afghan women and girls by creating a scholarship at your school for the Afghan Women’s Scholarship Program, launching a petition campaign, or adopting an Afghan girl’s school in Pakistan or Afghanistan! Join the Back To School Campaign.
Welcome to the 2001-2002 Campus Team!
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: Amber Wobschall from GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE; Carey Campbell from DUKE UNIVERSITY; Aimee Boone from the UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA; and Jessica Terlikowski from the UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS.
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!
Spelman College FMLA Activist Attends UN Rights of the Child Special Session
SPELMAN COLLEGE FMLA activist Maranda Ward joined youth leaders and advocates from around the globe at the United Nations Special Session on Children during her summer internship with Advocates for Youth. Advocates for Youth is a non-profit organization that works to create programs and policies that help young people make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.
Read about Maranda’s experience of this event online at http://www.youthshakers.org/youthactivism/youthrights/about.htm
FMF Interns Host Mifepriston and Emergency Contraception Event
Feminist Majority Foundation interns recently organized a briefing on Emergency Contraception and Mifepristone to kick-off a nationwide campaign to further young women’s reproductive choices on college campuses. Over 60 interns from Capitol Hill and progressive DC organizations attended to learn about Emergency Contraception and Mifepristone and to gather new resources and strategies for strengthening reproductive healthcare on their campuses.
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the FDA’s approval of Mifepristone (RU486) in the United States, the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Campus Program is gearing up for a National Day of Action to support early options for abortion and contraception. Be on the look out for an upcoming mailing with fact sheets and resources.
Don’t forget to update your campus address soon at http://www.feministcampus.org/UserEdit.asp.
Leadership Alliance Activist on ABC’s Nightline Spelman College
SPELMAN COLLEGE Leadership Alliance activist Miranda Ward recently appeared on ABC’s Nightline with Ted Koppel. Ward spoke on a panel of college students discussing a recent study on dating and violence. The study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, focuses on high school girls and found that one in five girls interviewed had been physically or sexually abused by a boyfriend. The study also found that the presence of violence dramatically increases the likelihood of girls engaging in other risky behaviors such as binge drinking, drug abuse and suicide attempts.
For more on the study, visit: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/datingviolence010731.html.
Southern Girls Convention Mobilized Hundreds of Activists in the South
Last month, AUBURN UNIVERSITY Leadership Alliance activist Charles Johnson and fellow feminist activists Claire Rumore and Ailecia Ruscin organized the third annual Southern Girls Convention in Auburn, Alabama. The conference brought together over 500 feminist activists from all over the country for a weekend of discussion, action, and entertainment devoted to ending violence against women, protecting abortion access, and fighting oppression based on gender, race, sexuality, economic class, and more. The conference offered regional organizing caucuses and over 60 information-packed peer workshops on topics including women in the South, reproductive rights, and movement-building.
Read more about the history of the conference and read updates online, http://www.infoshop.org/southerngirls/home.html
Free Pro-Choice Tool-Kit Available Online
The Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP) recently developed a new online toolkit that provides great resources for educating and involving more young people in the movement to protect reproductive freedom. Use PEP’s tool-kit as part of your organizing efforts on campus, in your community, on-line, at clinics, or as part of a public education and media campaign in your area.
Download PEP’s tool-kit and innovative repro-rights posters online at http://www.protectchoice.org/resources.htm
FMLA Fundraises for Earthquake Survivors in El Salvador
The NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY Leadership Alliance co-sponsored a benefit concert and silent auction to help survivors of the earthquake ravaged village of Jayaque, El Salvador. The event was a success and raised $3500, which will go to building homes that were destroyed from the quake. FMLA activists also joined a campus-wide delegation that traveled to El Salvador to assist survivors.
Feminist Majority Leadership Institute 2001 a Success
From June 21-26, 2001, 58 student feminist activists representing 49 campuses nation-wide gathered for the fifth annual Feminist Majority Leadership Institute in Washington, DC to gain pro-choice organizing strategies, essential leadership skills, and feminist issue-based training. The intense and exciting five-day Institute included workshops on current repro rights issues, fighting the right-wing backlash, and Online Organizing. Participants quickly put study into action by organizing a highly successful Mifepristone petition drive and public education campaign held Sunday, June 25 in front of the White House Ellipse in Washington, D.C. Inspired by the words of FMF President Eleanor Smeal, and armed with skills in leadership and organizing, participants left prepared to implement feminist activism on their campuses.
Southern Girls’ Convention to Galvanize Southern Feminist Activists
Choices Campus Community activists from AUBURN UNIVERSITY invite you to attend the third annual Southern Girls’ Convention on July 20 through July 22. Hundreds of feminists and campus activists from across the country will come together in Auburn, Alabama for a weekend of discussion, action, and entertainment devoted to building a powerful network of Southern feminist activists. Workshops and caucuses will cover a multitude of issues giving participants the chance to confront the myths and realities of life in the Deep South and women’s empowerment. Learn more about the convention and register online.
Southern Girls’ Convention to Galvanize Southern Feminist Activists
Choices Campus Community activists from AUBURN UNIVERSITY invite you to attend the third annual Southern Girls’ Convention on July 20 through July 22. Hundreds of feminists and campus activists from across the country will come together in Auburn, Alabama for a weekend of discussion, action, and entertainment devoted to building a powerful network of Southern feminist activists. Workshops and caucuses will cover a multitude of issues giving participants the chance to confront the myths and realities of life in the Deep South, women’s empowerment, Southern Culture and build a powerful network of Southern feminist activists that is willing to go into what many activists think of as “uncharted territory.”
Learn more about the convention and register online.
FMLA Activists Attend Gender PAC Conference in DC
Leadership Alliances from Cal State Los Angeles and UNC Greensboro, along with more than three hundred activists from nearly every state in the US, gathered in Washington D.C. earlier this month for the first National Conference on Gender and the sixth National Gender Lobby Day, hosted by GenderPAC. Participants from a diverse range of backgrounds met to discuss a united progressive movement for change focused on combating gender-based discrimination. Visit GenderPAC at http://www.gpac.org/
Western Washington Leadership Alliance Wins Award
The Western Washington University Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance was nominated to be the Outstanding Social Issues Club of the Year and won the award for Outstanding New Club of the Year. Congratulations!