Student groups seek new activists during outdoor fest

Mike Malloy Guest Writer

Got a cause? Whatever it may be, you can find an outlet for it at the first-ever ActFest. The interest fair will take place on Saturday, Sept. 8 from 1-3 p.m. on the Quad and will feature the approximately 20 activist groups on the Vassar campus.

Student leaders from organizations such as Act Out!, Vassar Animal Rescue Coalition, Hunger Action, and Save Darfur, among others, created the event in order to make activists groups more visible and motivate students to join their efforts. Food will be available and Superpowers, a 12-member, politically active afrobeat group, will perform.

Save Darfur Vice President Alex Meade ’09, one of the fair’s principal organizers, said she thought of starting an activism fair after she tried to found a group to address the troubles in Darfur, unaware that the College already had one. She said that at the general Vassar Student Association (VSA) activities fair, which was held on Sept. 2, it is “very easy to pass [activist] groups by.” Another drawback of the actitivies fair, according to Meade, is that students don’t always know what groups do. ActFest will be a higher-energy way of promoting these groups, Meade said. The VSA is financing 50 percent of event while the rest of the costs will be split between the participating groups.

The fair will incorporate people and groups that are often overlooked on the campus.

“It’s great for us specifically because a lot of students have intersecting interests like campus issues, as well as in P.E.A.C.E., anti-war, and poverty,” said Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance Co-President Heather McGuiness ’08. “It’s a good opportunity to get in touch with those who are interested in several issues and don’t realize that we deal with all of them as well.”

Class Act, a new group dealing with economic class divisions will set up a table at the fair. The club began as a support group at Metcalf House for working class and first generation college students. Club Co-President Kathleen Brady-Stepien ’08 said the group “encourage(s) working class students” to join but is “looking for students sympathetic to those issues” from all backgrounds.

Meade expressed hope that the fair would shake students out of apathy.

“We’re a liberal place but no one really does anything,” she said. “(Some) feel that nothing’s being done on campus. We want to show them concrete things that we’ve done in the past and what we’re planning to do in the future.”

Anna Sherr ’09, President of the Vassar chapter of Democracy Matters, said that student apathy is not necessarily the only problem.

“A lot of the time, I think, it feels like if you get involved with a group you won’t be doing real work,” Sherr said. “I feel like students at Vassar are pretty interested in actually getting involved. People are a little deterred by feeling like they won’t have a significant role in the groups they join.”

This year the VSA will run meetings to coordinate activist groups. Sherr mentioned that Democracy Matters, in particular, works well with other groups, and that they may collaborate with Vassar Greens.

Lily Huang ’08, a member of Class Act, said that exposure through ActFest would be helpful.
“A lot of it is about building coalitions [with other groups,]” she said. “You can accomplish a lot more together,” she said.