Green Party hosts State Conference

Mike Alberti Staff Writer

On Saturday, Feb. 23, Vassar will host the New York State Campus Greens Conference, where representatives from Green Party chapters of colleges and universities across the state will meet to hold a day-long series of workshops and events concerning Green politics. Also attending and helping to host workshops will be community organizers from around New York State and Poughkeepsie community members who are involved with the Green Party.

The event, organized by the Vassar Green Party, will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the second floor of Rockefeller Hall. The Vassar Student Association gave the Greens $3500 to fund the event, with the Black Students Union and the Political Science department also contributing.

There will be 15 workshops throughout the day that will focus on a range of issues, including a green campaign, garnering media attention for an event, obtaining healthcare, direct action, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) rights, the Kick Coke campaign and animal rights.

Some workshops will be hosted and facilitated by Vassar students and others by community organizers and activists within the state Green Party, including New Paltz Village Counselor Rebecca Rotzler, Steve Breyman of the New York Department of Environmental Conservatism and Mark Dunlea of the New York Hunger Action Network. Schools that will be represented include State University of New York at Albany and Ithaca College.

The conference will culminate with a free presentation and performance by Capitol Resistance, a Washington, D.C.-based hip-hop group that focuses on the intersection between hip-hop and activism.

Julia Golomb ’08, President of Act Out!, will host a workshop entitled “Direct Action and LGBT Rights,” which will tie the event to the Hudson Valley Gay-Straight Alliance Summit that is also being hosted by Vassar. The summit is scheduled for Saturday evening, following the conference.

“One thing that I think will be really great will be having the opportunity to connect with other progressive people from different schools and around the state,” said Golomb.

“We’re excited about this conference because our main reason for doing anything on campus is trying to get a progressive and radical voice out there, and this is a great opportunity to do that,” said Vassar Green Party representative Reed Dunlea ’09. “It will be a great forum for Vassar students who are interested in progressive activism to learn and talk about varying issues, and about the Green Party in general.”

“I think it’s exciting and interesting because it is students getting together to discuss and develop an alternative politics outside of the Democratic and Republican Parties,” said Peter LaVenia, the Co-Chair of the New York State Green Party. Lavenia will host a workshop, “The History of the Green Party,” which explains the history of the Party in the United States and how it is related to the Party’s global history. “It’s exciting, too, because Vassar is famous for fostering views outside the mainstream and having an inquisitive, critical student body,” he added.

The conference is open to all students who wish to attend. Dunlea encouraged interested students to register beforehand by e-mailing Peter Satin ’10 at pesatin@vassar.edu, though he added that no one who shows up will be turned away.