Students begin campaign to end prejudice on campus
and build stronger community
By Kelley Ruch, Staff Writer
St. Michael’s students have created a campaign to help eliminate prejudice on campus after experiencing an incident involving racial slurs among students.
“Friends of ours experienced something a couple weeks ago that was kind of nasty and it was just inappropriate for St. Mike’s,” said Student Association President Arly Scully. “Some racial stuff was said, but what hurt us more was that these girls said, for the first time in their four years here, this wasn’t their community. They felt ostracized.”
The weekend after that, word spread that homophobic comments had been made.
“The fact was that people were saying racist things, and then the weekend after that people were saying homophobic things,” said Senior Class President Lauren Remmes.
“Arly and I wanted to step up as student leaders, not just for our class, but for our school,” she said.
Remmes and Scully connected with Jennie Cernosia, director of Student Activities, and Moise St. Louis, director of Multicultural Student Affairs, to think of a plan of action.
The new initiative is called “Not in my Home, Not in THIS Space.”
“This is something the students and the members of the senior class thought was important to share with their peers and their campus,” St. Louis said. “This is not really one group, it’s a community.”
Through this initiative, Scully and Remmes said they hope to get their peers to think before they speak. They said words that get tossed around lightly, especially after a few beers, can have a much bigger effect on someone, or a group, than people realize.
“I really don’t think that people understand half the words that come out of their mouth,” Remmes said. “A lot of people will say ‘Oh, that’s so gay,’ and I don’t think they understand the connotations. What they’re saying can offend somebody.”
In order to remind people of this, Remmes and Scully, with the help of St. Louis and Cernosia, designed laminated signs for students to take at their will and hang up on their doors.
“Lauren and I wanted to do more than just put a Band-Aid on the problem,” Scully said.
The signs are not meant to change people’s way of thinking, or alter anyone’s beliefs, Scully said. They are there to remind others of the community St. Michael’s prides itself on, she said.
“I think that there’s always something to be said for ‘how much does a piece of paper change people’s minds?’ and ‘how much does a cheesy saying implement things at St. Mike’s?’” Scully said. “Having people put them up won’t necessarily change something, but I hope it will encourage people to stand up for someone.”
With Cernosia retiring from her position as director of Student Activities and graduation around the corner for Remmes and Scully, St. Louis is left to run the program next year.
“I’m certainly committed to helping the student body to continue this,” St. Louis said. “I think every student group should be interested in it. Once we talk about it next year, that will be the case.”
“I think a lot of students will be returning who think that making people feel comfortable and welcome is very important,” he said. “They believe that their friends should feel accepted, safe and cared for and, really, that is what this is about.”
“Not in my Home, Not in THIS Space” is still new to the St. Michael’s community. However, those who have heard about it have given positive responses to both Remmes and Scully.
“I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails from students saying ‘Thank you for doing this,’” Scully said. “Clearly there was a need for it and we hadn’t realized it.”
Remmes stressed the fact that people can’t choose when they want to act as a community.
“We feel as though every other day ‘community’ is such a big word on campus,” Remmes said. “But at 11 o’clock on a Friday or Saturday, where’s the community? If we’re going to say we’re a community, we need to be one 24/7, not just five days out of the week.”
St. Louis said he believes this initiative will take a positive course and he hopes to have more students help him continue it next year.
“This sends a message to those who think attacking and harassing and saying inappropriate things to our friends is something we will tolerate,” St. Louis said.
“This is a message that we care about- the space we live in.”
Contact Kelley Ruch at kruch@smcvt.edu
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