LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Brandeis Activist Gala was an important but inadequately covered event
To the Editor: An article was published last week about both a student event and a student movement ("Group provides relief for hunger, disease and illiteracy in Africa," March 14 issue). Unfortunately, the two were unjustly morphed into one. I am the co-chairman of the Brandeis Social Justice Committee (SJC), a subsidiary of the Student Union. I have devoted the last two months of my life to creating something that this campus has sorely needed, a place for activists to unite their different causes. With great support from the highest levels of the Student Union, the Brandeis Pluralism Alliance and activist leaders, the SJC hosted the first annual Brandeis Activist Gala. This Gala brought together over 70 core members of the activist community and Student Union officials.
However, there was no adequate news coverage for this event, except for a misleading article that mentioned the Gala only as an afterthought. Student leaders from the Activist Resource Center, Students for a Just Society, the Radical Students Alliance, the Brandeis Labor Coalition, Student Global Aid Campaign, Students Take Action Now: Darfur, Democracy for America, 'Deis for Deval and Positive Foundations all addressed the audience. The theme of continued energy and support for each other's efforts became the centerpiece of a very successful and empowering event.
The Gala's featured project was the Millennium Project, a global initiative to end extreme poverty (not just in Africa). Positive Foundations and a SJC co-chairman, Sam Vaghar '08, are spearheading this movement. As the Gala was meant to be a forum on various issues and projects within the community, the Millennium Project was chosen as a feature because it was perceived to have a uniquely broad appeal to many organizations. Although the SJC does see poverty as one of the world's greatest injustices, this project is just one of the many which the SJC intends to support. This fact was somewhat misrepresented in last week's article. The SJC is also working with the Student Global Aids Campaign on instituting campus-wide HIV testing and the Brandeis Labor Coalition on aiding Aramark employee contract negotiations.
I agree with previous letters that Student activism is very much "alive and well" at Brandeis. It is in that spirit that the Activist Gala must be recognized as an important event for the solidarity of activism in all of its forms.
-Jamie Ansorge '09
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