Campus Activism Skills
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Offered Winter Study 2008:
Do wish you had better skills? Do you wish you could lead a campus group better? Do you have a feeling things could run a lot better, but aren't sure how to start doing that?
Students have been frustrated by apathy on college campuses since the beginning of time. There have been brief spells when the need for direct action was so strong that overwhelming numbers were moved to act, such as the Hopkins hall takeover in the early seventies and the campus wide strike in '71. However, for those of you who care deeply about the messed up problems in the world but feel like you don't have the power to do anything, you're wrong.
Once you learn what it takes to motivate others, to plan an effective meeting and to organize people to win what they want, you begin to see that change is possible. Barack Obama won by a large margin in Iowa because his campaign is really good at getting volunteers excited about working hard and making a difference. Its not rocket science, its organizing.
We will do short workshops on recruiting, leadership development and campaign planning. I want to share some things that I've learned and learn from you.
Lots of these skills come from my experience helping to run Thursday Night Group and my work with the Sierra Student Coalition but a lot of them will also come from you.