The No Limits Project

No Shame? College Uses Misleading Advertising

nolimitsgrinnell — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:01:46 +0000

This photo, taken in the Des Moines Airport, is one of the College’s current marketing tools. Pictured are two wind turbines in a corn field, wind turbines that in reality do not exist. After students, faculty, staff, and alumni have put in a great deal of energy organizing, letter-writing, educating, and fund-raising to get the President and Board of Trustees to agree in 2007 to power campus with wind energy, we are still waiting for results. For the Communications Department to sell the College in this way, given our efforts, is frustrating. Importantly, this advertisement symbolizes a larger trend of the College saying one thing (we’ll build turbines, or we’ll write a Hate Crimes Response Policy) and doing another (withholding money for the turbine project, or taking one and a half years to write a Hate Crimes Response Policy). Why do we spend more money marketing the institution as socially just than actually implementing our commitments to social justice???

Take action!
1. Call/ email/ meet with the Office of Communication Director Kate Worster and President Osgood. Contact info HERE. Tell them to
a) take down the advertisement and any others like it.
b) BUILD THE WIND TURBINES the College has promised to, and
c) take action on the rest of the No Limits Project demands!
2. Come to a No Limits Meeting: Wednesdays at 9pm in the Voicebox.
3. Talk to a Trustee about this issue during Trustee Weekend, the weekend of Sept 25th. Come to the Open Forum that Thurs night (time and location TBA) and talk to them in person!

STUDY BREAK!!! Next Wed (Oct 7th) from 12-5 and 7-9pm in the grille. Frustrated with the College’s misleading Wind Turbine Ad Campaign? Make your own “Ideal Grinnell” advertisements! We will provide crayons, markers, paper, and homemade cookies! We will also have a list of suggestions of things people could make their ads about. All advertisements will be sent in campus mail to the Office of Communications/ Admins with a NLP cover letter telling them to take down the ad and put up the turbines!.

Join the movement!

nolimitsgrinnell — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:58:20 +0000

We meet Wednesdays at 9pm in the Voicebox (3rd floor of the JRC) every week. Everyone is welcome!

Our goals for this semester are:
- Get Need Blind Admissions for International Students reimplemented
- Get a Hate Crimes Response Policy with substantial student input implemented
- Get new Emissions Reduction Commitment implemented
- Ensure student input on creation of inhouse Mental Health Services for next year
- Track Lily Intern situation this year

(-As well as tracking new developments with all 14 of our original demands)

Welcome back to campus!

nolimitsgrinnell — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 19:47:30 +0000

Hello First Years and Returning Students,

The first No Limits Project meeting of the year will be:

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd at 9pm in the VOICEBOX (3rd floor JRC).

Everyone is welcome. Come learn about our project and plan for the fall!

NSO Planning

nolimitsgrinnell — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:58:36 +0000

Join us at the next meeting- Sunday, August 23rd at 2pm outside the JRC Grille to plan our activities for NSO and the first week of school!

Remember, the administration and student government have said that they hope our movement dies over the summer, so we’ve got to show them that we’re still here and we still care!

nolimitsgrinnell — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:07:02 +0000

Summer News:

ERC progress: The EcoCampus comittee is working on updating the ERC and has met several times this summer and plans to present the new ERC to the trustees when they visit campus in the fall.

AJust: A budget was approved for AJust for the coming school year through the Office of Student Affairs. Programming will include SA training, NSO workshops, and other workshops as the year progresses.

We’re having another meeting August 5th, 9pm, location TBA.

Love,
NLP

Welcome Alumni!

nolimitsgrinnell — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:09:41 +0000

The No Limits Project would like to welcome alumni to campus. We welcome alumni interest, concerns, and support.

The No Limits Project (NLP) is a student campaign started this year to highlight the ways that the College is not meeting its stated commitment to social justice, transparancy, and accountability, and to work toward the implementation of 14 demands. These 14 demands are specific ways in which the College has promised to, but never actually met certain commitments to social justice.

We encourage alumni to:

Learn More!:
-Check out the About Us and FAQ for general info as well as the Resources page for specific information about the demands.
-And attend a NLP ALUMNI INFO SESSION, held by NLP students, this Saturday afternoon at 3:00 in the Grille in the JRC.

Support Us!:
- Contact Alumni Affairs or current administrators and tell them about the specific NLP demands that you are concerned about.
- Do the Alternative Giving Pledge! Pledge to give to the College ONCE they have met NLP’s demands.

This week and beyond in the NLP

nolimitsgrinnell — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:29:45 +0000

1) This week we are holding three meetings with administrators (Elena Bernal, Kathleen Skerret, President Osgood, Marcie Sortor, Houston Dougharty, and Travis Greene) to discuss the NLP in general and some of our specific demands. The meetings will be tape-recorded and transcripts of the meetings will be available online soon.

2) We are planning to be visible at graduation. More info to come. If you want to help plan, email the account.

3) If you will be on campus this summer and would like to be involved with NLP, please email us: nolimitsgrinnell@gmail.com

Silent Protest outside the Board of Trustees Meeting

nolimitsgrinnell — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:01:54 +0000

Silent Protest Information

The Trustees are meeting on the second floor of the Old Glove Factory at 10:30 tomorrow (Friday 4/23) morning. We are gathering for a silent protest outside this meeting, and will present this letter to the Trustees (students, faculty, staff, alums – email us ASAP if you’d like to sign!).

The purpose of this event is to symbolically (1) express frustration at the lack of transparency and accountability in issues of social responsibility at Grinnell College, (2) call on the Trustees to ensure that administrators publicly engage with the NLP demand areas in a meaningful way, and (3) urge the Trustees to take action on the NLP demands that pertain directly to them.

Please join us! (students, staff, faculty and supporters welcome)

Meet at the Grille at 9:50am, or be outside the Old Glove Factory’s main entrance no later than 10:00am on Friday. Or stop by anytime you’re free before noon!

Poster Making Sessions

We’ll be making posters tonight, tomorrow morning (times below), and meeting up at the Grille at 9:50am to walk over together.

Poster Making Sessions:
- Tonight (Thurs) 8-9pm, Grille AND Campus Pub…. it’s 25cent beer night so take your pick, we’ll have supplies in both
- Tomorrow (Fri) 9:15-9:50am Grille

Meet-up and walk over to the silent protest
- Tomorrow (Fri) in the Grille – we’ll leave at 9:50am

***As with all symbolic action, there are risks involved. However, as this will be a non-disruptive activity on college property, it is extremely unlikely that there will be any legal consequences for taking part in this protest.

Document distributed at the faculty meeting regarding hiring and firing

nolimitsgrinnell — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:23:16 +0000

The document distributed at the faculty meeting regarding hiring and firing is posted here.

In keeping with our commitment to transparency and accountability, we have decided to post this on our website in light of the S&B’s recent decision to remove it from theirs. Within time constraints we have tried to maintain a collective decision-making process; if you want to discuss this choice please direct comments to nolimitsgrinnell@gmail.com or attend our next meeting or the discussion this evening at 7:00 in JRC101.

Love,

NLP

Earth Day

nolimitsgrinnell — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 03:43:58 +0000

Lots of fun things this Wednesday. We need as much help as we can get!

Come celebrate Earth Day by calling for accountability! We’re bringing on some symbolic visual action tomorrow at noon in the Grille (if the weather is nice, in the courtyard behind it). This will pertain to Earth Day and Osgood and the Trustees’ lack of action with regard to carbon dioxide emission reduction, even after approving an Emissions Reduction Commitment they commissioned. We’ll have three banners and informational flyers, and the bigger student presence we have the better our voices will be heard! So come out, friends, and eat lunch with us.

ALSO
ATTENTION! PLEASE COME TONIGHT TO THE OPEN-FORUM TONIGHT @ 7PM in JRC 101.

The faculty discussion tonight on hiring/firing practices will take a different form. We will have a representative from the faculty there to share information and ideas, however, this will primarily be for students to discuss this issue. New information has come to light and so it is extremely important that you be there. It is also SO important for us to express our frustration now as faculty are being pressured into silence. We need as many students there as possible.

PLEASE COME!!!
USE YOUR VOICE!!

-NO LIMITS PROJECTWe’ve attached the text of the flyer we’ll be passing out. If you can’t join us, be sure to read it and distribute it to whomever else might be interested. People should know about this stuff!

Love,
NLP