A Just Grinnell: Unlearning Oppression and Building Community
Quick History
A quick history of activism at Grinnell leading up to this demand.
What is AJust?
AJust Grinnell is a student group that is working to create a Peer Education Program at Grinnell College. This program will be a student-led program for the entire student body. The workshops and discussions in the program would address the dynamics of privilege, power, and oppression on campus and in society.
The goals of the program are to transform student culture, to make Grinnell a true safe space for all, to provide resources for students dealing with their own homophobia, racism, etc, to have a group that is prepared to deal with instances like the Hate Crimes, and to create student leaders who can engage with these issues in the real world once they graduate!
The program will begin as student: student, but there will hopefully one day be partner organizations for faculty:faculty, and staff:staff peer education programs.
Why Do We Need A Program Like This?
The need to address these issues has been expressed by many students in the last few years through SGA petitions as well as the creation of different student interest groups, student-led ally trainings and workshops, and student initiatives demanding gender-neutral housing as well as changes to the college’s nondiscrimination policy. However, there has been no institutionally-supported program that examines the intersectionality of these issues and the ways in which they not only harm individuals, but also function to intimidate, oppress, and silence entire groups of people. There is also not a program that targets students’ residential environments, where most hate incidents occur.
This program, inspired by a similar program at our peer institution Wesleyan University, aims to provide frequent student-facilitated workshops on issues of oppression, privilege, and discrimination for the entire student body in order to create a campus culture of mutual understanding, cooperation, and respect.
Additionally, the program also helps us as an institution to fulfill recommendations made in our last re-accreditation process, including the self-study, and the commitments of our mission statement. This program would help us to adhere to the recommendations to renew the college’s commitment to diversity and celebrate the types of diversity already here. The need for the program also has precedent in the college’s mission statement which acknowledges a diverse community, social responsibility, and self governance as core values of the college.
Group History
In Summer 2008, students drafted the first proposal for a Peer Education Program at Grinnell College:
In Fall 2008, these students did outreach to the Grinnell Campus to spread the news about the need for the program and to get ideas for what the program would look like. This form was used to talk about the program and get opinions:
On November 16th, 2008, the students held a retreat in Forum South Lounge with over 50 students and 4 administrators to talk about our dreams for a Peer Education Program…which became AJust Grinnell: Unlearning Oppression and Building Community!
Click here to read about AJust’s student initiative (see p. 3), which passed!
From March 14-17, 2009 AJust held its FIRST TRAINING. The Spring Break Social Justice Training had 40 student participants, producing the first group of student facilitators. Currently, a Pilot Program is in progress for the remainder of the Spring Semester.
In Fall 2009, AJust hopes to have a full peer education program up and running. This means full campus participation, and a group of trained students to facilitate workshops on a regular basis during the school year. A critical component of this program is a guarantee of compensation for student facilitators; this ensures both that students who want to do this work will not be excluded based on economic class, and that the work they do will be institutionally valued.
What is needed
The AJust Grinnell Program will play a critical role in transforming campus culture. Although they have worked extensively with administrators over the past year, AJust still has no formalized commitment to an implementation of a fully funded and functioning peer education program in place by New Student Orientation, 2009. We commend the administration for the genuine support and interest it has provided in this project, but a commitment is needed in writing.
We demand a written commitment from the College to fully fund AJust Grinnell programming, including an evaluation of the pilot program, wages for student facilitators and program costs by April 6th, 2009.
