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Thursday, February 27, 1997

ACTIVISM:

Positive changes must begin with student supportBy Robin Pendoley

"Hey, would you like to pledge your support to the environment?" Keep your head down. Don't make eye contact. Just keep walking. "Would you like to sign a postcard to decrease student fees and increase financial aid?" Oh no, they've got clipboards! Once they stop you, you'll never get away. They're gonna ask for money. They're gonna waste your time.

Sound familiar? You're on your way to class on Bruin Walk, in Royce Quad, in LuValle Commons, just minding your own business, thinking about the paper due next week. Then you see them. The enemy appears, armed with clipboards, just itchin' to waste your time and steal your money. This whole "student activism" thing is just a front.

Maybe I should introduce myself. I am the UCLA chapter chair and the State Board Chair of the California Public Research Interest Group (CALPIRG), the statewide student directed environmental group. We are a grassroots organization focused on organizing students to effectively voice their opinions and make a difference on issues students care about.

Last month I went to Washington D.C. as one of two representatives of CALPIRG to a national PIRG meeting and lobby session. I met with PIRG students from around the nation to discuss how best to continue organizing and on what issues the students we represent most want us to focus our energy.

I also participated in two days of lobbying on Capitol Hill with 140 other PIRG students and staff. We met with the offices of over 300 Congress members to discuss the expansion of the Toxic Right to Know Act and Campaign Finance Reform. An 18-year-old student from UCLA walked the halls of Congress, the workplace of the decision makers of the most powerful nation in the world, to create positive changes on behalf of 25,000 student CALPIRG members around the state of California.

So, what does all of this qualify me as? A student activist.

As I stated before, I am part of an organization that works to organize the voice of students on issues that concern them. We recruit volunteers to work on beach clean-ups, food and clothing drives for the homeless, campaign finance reform and reducing the amount of toxic chemicals in the environment. But how does all of this work get done? How do we recruit? How do those volunteers encourage the students at large to voice their opinions? We pick up our clipboards.

Oh no. Here they go. They're going to preach about the issues like those evangelists on Bruin Walk. They probably think I'm a sinner if I don't sign their postcard.

Take another look. Have another listen. These are students who are addressing issues because they are issues that students are concerned about. These are students who are trying to help you find a voice about your issues beyond your coffee shop banter and classroom discussions of some impending social or physical doom. These are students trying to help their peers convert voices into action.

We don't sound quite so devious and maniacal anymore, do we? Those clipboards and those introduction lines aren't the edge of an abyss that swallows time and money anymore, are they? But the question still exists: Does any of this really make a difference?

I began each meeting by giving a 10 minute introduction of the bill to expand the Right to Know Act, which requires reporting of the use and emissions of chemicals that are known to cause health problems like cancer and birth defects by corporations. After this introduction, the first thing that the Congressmember would ask for is proof of constituent support. To be a successful and effective student activist should I proceed to assure the Congressmember that in my opinion the constituents do support this issue, or should I let the constituents, the students speak for themselves?

Being the successful student activists that we are ­ self-proclaimed, but successful nonetheless ­ we reach across the desk with hands full, arms full, boxes full of postcards or petitions signed by the constituents, the students saying that they support the issue with their very own voices. These students, constituents, voices have the amazing and very real power of democratic persuasion.

Still not convinced? A group of UCLA CALPIRG interns met with Representative Henry Waxman of Westwood last month to discuss the Right to Know Act. At the meeting, the student interns presented Representative Waxman with 800 postcards signed by his constituents, all UCLA students, urging him to sponsor the bill in Congress. Later that afternoon it was announced that Representative Waxman had signed on as the original sponsor of the bill. So, by stopping and simply filling out a postcard, what are you?

You are a student.

You are a constituent.

You are a voice.

You are the difference.

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