Student Leadership and Campus Activism

Angelina Mercado
(202) 985-4905
am9409@american.edu

I have always been an activist in my own way. At Connecticut College, with the Connecticut College Coalition Against the Contract With America and our Latino student organization La Unidad, I learned how to become a successful student activist. The Coalition found that smaller realistic goals would enable us to ultimately reach our greater goals to change the conventional wisdom concerning the legislation of the Contract. Also, the accomplishment of achieving our smaller goals further unified us and made us more successful as an organization. One of the Coalition's first goals was to educate the campus community and the New London community at large about the proposed legislation of the Contract and the implications for their community and ours. We found that there is a four part strategy to our success. First, we formed committees that were responsible for collecting and disseminating the pertinent information. The second part, arguably our greatest feat, to generate conversations not only over dinner but over the Internet. Students in the dorms used Internet group mailings as their vehicle for discussion. The Internet is the best service available to students; it is fast and free. Once we felt that we had distributed enough information, we then created an open forum, an 'open mike' on campus, where members of the campus asked questions and make comments. Finally, we culminated our efforts and funneled the community into a march and rally in New London's City Hall.

Another successful tool we found is the formation of coalitions with other organizations within your own school as well as the schools around you. Forging a relationship with other student organizations adds unity to your cause. Many of the members of the Coalition were also members of S.A.V.E. (Students Against Violence to the Environment) and used S.A.V.E. as another vehicle to put out the message. As an officer of both the Coalition and La Unidad, I acted as a liaison between the two organizations and helped provide information that was pertinent to the other. If your group does not have the same crossover, and excellent way of getting other organizations involved is to simply call them. The Coalition contacted schools in the New London area to join us for the march and also shared legislative updates with one another . La Unidad also held a conference on campus during its Latino Awareness Month in which students from other colleges and universities participated in workshops among other things, Civil Rights and student leadership in the campus and local community.

I was shocked to learn that there were students I favor of the Contract, legislation that seemed improperly founded. I was naive, but I have since earned that activists provide the means by which people can form their opinions. A single act by a single person can change the way we look at the world. Once you make the act of giving, someone else's world is affected. Only through our positive actions in the community can we educate ourselves and each other. Once we have provided the tools, we can only hope that people make the 'right' decision. Our biggest problem is political apathy. So it is even more important to target the people who really care about your cause and involve them. That is why I advocate an active participation of student organizations in their local communities. Residents of the local community are often a great resource to the student activist. I understand that students are very busy trying to balance the often arduous workload and other extracurricular activities, but a few small thoughtful activities such as giving the local high school kids a tour of your campus, or somehow introducing them to campus life can make an big impact on both your lives.