Hello again bobcat nation, the shortest month of the year is gone and we begin our headway for the beginning of Spring. A few things that we want you all to be aware of. Don’t forget that you fall back, and spring forward, daylight savings time was on March 8th and we’ll be changing our clocks an hour into the future! And St. Patrick’s Day is on March 17th! Remember that the Georgia voting primary is March 24th, you can find information on your city’s polling place at your local courthouse. Or go online to ga.gov for more. And on March 31st, the Diversity Peer Educators will be having an event at 6:00 in Donahoo Lounge. This event, championed by school faculty, will focus on free speech, Georgia College values, and technology. In this event we want to break the historical context and hurtful truth of things that we may or may not say, whether alone or in a group. We want to talk about what it means to be sensitive and understanding of how technology and what we say affects those around us. On the front campus today, there was an SGA event, coordinated with other individuals, where a gathering for encapsulating two different struggles. The first being the struggle for civil rights / increased diversity on campus and the other being International Women's Day and the things that women on GC campus face. This past Sunday was International Women's Day, and women around the world went on strike. You can find more on womensglobalstrike.com but the gist of it is, is that if women stop, the world stops. Women all over the world, from America, to Pakistan, to Argentina, and many more, all went on strike. The stopped or slowed working, causing a purposeful rift in the world. Some women left work altogether, other women refused to do their “domestic responsibilities”. Leari Jones, is a GC student and an out spoken activist, I talked with her after the rally and this is what she had to say: “International Women's Day is just a section of what women can do. Just a small section of what women can do for the world ... It makes me feel proud to be a woman, [we are] strong and able." I also caught up with Sachen Pillay, the president of YDSA (Young Democratic Socialists of America) who feels that the rally serves the purpose of addressing the sexist and racist issues that are a pandemic to this campus:
Sachen: Its a platform for victims and advocates give a pointed and needed remark to the GC administration to effectively address these issues of diversity and women's issues on campus after so many promises that have not been met. We as student leaders and activists are fed up in the conditions that we have to live and [attend] school in and we want to make a statement to spread that decision and that consciousness. Didi: You said something about the promises that we keep being made by the administration, in the context of GC what action do you want to see them take? Sachen: I would like to see them make substantial efforts to recruit out of the predominantly African-American population of MIlledgeville. And he has a point, as Georgia is a rapidly diversifying state, why can’t GC diversify as well? As DPE’s we play a role in starting the conversations that need to be had but also continuing the conversation. Our goal is to educate, advocate, and help our fellow bobcats in anyway that we can. The fight for greater diversity can’t stop with us and as Leery and Sachen have proven, it won’t stop. Join us again soon for the next blog post and have a wonderful Spring Break bobcats!
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Diondra FranklinThis DPE will be keeping it 100 every time she takes pen to page, or really fingers to keyboard. Be on the look out every other Saturday for the tea of the week! Archives
February 2020
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