Global PACT Blog

There is change in the air here at Rutgers. Spring is here, and everything is lovely. The Coats have been but away. Everybody is proudly showing off their pride by wearing the red Rutgers T-shirts and sweaters. But there is something that Most Rutgers students do not know. The shirts they are wearing were made in a Sweat shops. That is right Rutgers apparels are made in a sweat shop. The Oxfam student group on Campus petitioned against this issue. The Oxfam student group is made up of hard working ambitious youth who will not take no for an answer. They worked hard with the student body to bring awareness to the issue. They also went to the university’s administration to voice their opinion on the Rutgers’ apparels being made by sweatshops.

www.viewimages.com

The Campus newspaper The Daily Targum broke out the news that the University’s apparels will be 100% sweatshop free in the next few years. That is because the process will be gradual. But for the Oxfam students that is a step in the right direction. They feel that they have made a tremendous accomplishment and make Rutgers University the 44^th university to stand against the inhuman conditions in the Sweatshops.

Parisa Kharazi, the president of the Oxfam chapter explained “We’re a humanitarian group. We fight for human rights and [sweatshops are] a human rights violation.” She went on to say “We gave a letter to President McCormick and on it, it said, ‘Will you show support for sweatshop workers this Valentine’s Day?” Then every Wednesday a group of students went again with the same letter to the President to illustrate their determination. “I think if we really want something to happen, it’s important to be persistent and to push to reach our goal,” Parisa Kharazi said.

Eventually the President of the university said to Parisa “You and your fellow students have my admiration and my thanks for your efforts to promote worker rights and fair labor standards.” A meeting was set with Assistant Director of Trademark Licensing Marybeth Schmutz and Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs Delia Pitts and the Oxfam Students. According to The Daily Targum article, “I guess the DSP was a little bit off our radar,” Schmutz said. “To be honest, it sometimes takes students to step up and say, ‘You need to be paying attention to this,’ and we did.”

Schmutz said, “When a school signs on to the DSP, there is a six-month grace period…In the first year, 25 percent of the apparel has to be from factories under the DSP conditions. The second year is 50 percent and the third is 75 percent.” “It’s a gradual process but Rutgers signing onto this agreement is just one step further to making our campus sweatshop free,” Parisa Kharazi said.

A victory email was sent to all Oxfam Students to break the good news. I was indeed a glorious day when the President McCormick sent an email to Parisa Kharazi, informing her that he signed the agreement.

As you can see student groups can create change on step at a time. Parisa said, “And I think it’s a great way for students to know that if they believe strongly in something, it’s possible for it to be done. If you really believe in something, it can be possible as long as you never give up.” So, if you have a cause, come up with a plan, get organized, work with the people in your group, be persistent, and then you will go far.

The whole purpose of creating a Student group is to influence other students. You want them to do something, or know something to do something and influence others to do something. Whether is being more sensitive to the environment, or help those in need in your community. So, you need to come up with a plan to get more people to join your cause. The more people you have on your team, your student group will be more powerful, effective, and able to create the influence you need to create social change.

Consider the different ways to attract your audience :

• First, location, location! Pick a good location for your student group.
  • You need a place that is familiar to students on your campus. Because if no one knows where it is located, they will not come.
• Second, once you have the location figured out, think of what ways to attract the audience to your student group.
  • Flyers are good, but picking the right location is more important. From my experience on the Rutgers campus, what draws attention is putting your flyers in unusual and busy places.
    • If it is ok with your school, put filers the rest room, the best spot is next to the sinks because no one can avoid but reading what is written.
    • Put the flyer in a place a way from other flyers, but still do not avoid put one or two there anyway.
    • Put up some on the stair walls , in elevators, next to the doors of class rooms of busy buildings.
    • Also put up flyers near public transportation areas, like bus stops, train stations, or taxi stops.
    • May be have someone stand in busy places and hand the flyers out.
  • Do something out of the ordinary. May be you can do what  Rachel Barge  did with the shirts ( you will need money for that though)
  • Join other student groups in events that advocate what your student group stand for.
  • There may be on your campus student group fairs being held at certain times in the semester
    • Make sure that you have a spot to draw traffic to your table.
    • Present your ideas in an interesting manner.
    • You could give out free stuff like candy, people will come for stuff like that, and then you can catch them and tell them all about your student group.
    • You could give out free stuff like candy, people will come for stuff like that, and then you can catch them and tell them all about your student group.

Media Credit: John Bolognini

•  
  • Make a page for your group on Facebook.
    • Tell all of your friends about it on Facebook
    • Post your events, and activities
  • Make a page on MySpace, and pretty much do the same thing.
    • You also consider making other similar groups in Myspace your friends.
    • Say something on their page.
    • Say something on your school’s page.
    • May be create a discussion on your school’s page.
    • Post your events, and activities.
  • If your school has a website for the organizations on campus join it

Once you have some money to begin start the student organization from your campus and more members in your student group, you can do what the student group is intended to do as per your plan that you have out lined in your constitution.  But at the same time you want to make sure that you do not run out of money too quickly.

There are a lot of ways to build your project. You can start by creating a student group on campus. Being a student organization on campus will give you credibility. You will probably be able to find people on campus who share your views and will be willing to join you in your cause.  Most importantly many Schools give out grants to student groups who are creating social change in their community, their state, and the world.

1. Start with your campus, and see what the requirements to start an organization are. 
2.  In most cases you will need an advisor to supervise your organization, thus look for someone who has experience or interest in your project. Also, someone who you can learn from.
3. Once you have created your team for the project , now you can focus on how the organization will reach its goals. Some colleges require writing a constitution regarding the objective of the organization how the organization plans to carry out these objectives.
4. Begin by asking yourself,
   1.  What do we hope to accomplish?  At the same, time do not try to focus on too many things at once.
   2. How will this organization serve my universty, it’s students, the local community or the world?
   3. There might be a  similar student group established aleardy. Thus, you could consider a different kind of audience to get involved in the cause. Think of reasons for them to join, ask yourself what is in your student organization that is useful to them? 
   4. How are we different from other organizations?  Think in what ways your student group can complete the other group, and how you can work together as we saw in the case of ICBL . What made them successful as an organization was working  with other organizations to create a greater impact. They also came up with a name that says who you are, how you are different, but something catchy too.
5. Once you have the answers for these questions. You are ready to write your constitution to submit to your campus, or just to state to the team the rules and the goals of the student group. The constitution could include:

Name of the Organization

Purpose of the Organization

Requirements for membership

Title and role description for all officers

Method of election/selection for officers and related eligibility requirements

Statement on member voting privileges

Method for removal of officers

Amendments to the Constitution

Statement of required dues (if applicable)

                  If you are confused you can use the Rutgers university Guide as an example. Just use pages 2,3,5 and 6

Once you have all of these things figured out, come up with a plan to get things started. You are probably asking yourself, why do I have to go through all of that trouble? As stated above, when you have a student group under the umbrella of an established university, it gives the student group more credibility. Since you are trying to create social change, and influence the world around you, credibility is vital. Credibility is also vital when you will want to collect funds for your future projects, from your university, or even from generous donors like Global Giving (which we introduced to in a previous post) . In our up coming post we will tell you how you can get money from your campus for your Student group, the events you will be hosting, or to projects you are going to be leading.

So, stay tuned.

This is just an example of how credibility of student groups can have an impact.