The campus’ social justice and the environment week involved several events, all relating to the week’s themes of social and environmental justice. This particular week was chosen for the events because it coincided with International Peace Day. “The ideas of peace and justice go really well together, so that seemed like a natural week to have it,” Dr. Rita Shah said. Shah is an assistant professor of sociology and headed the committee and planned the week’s theme and events. Last spring, this committee began planning a social justice event and generated multiple ideas for what it could involve. As a result, they made the decision to put together a week’s worth of related events to raise campus awareness of social justice and environmental issues.
Shah explained that the choice of environmentalism as the week’s theme was made because people’s various decisions about the environment cause different effects across social groups and stem from the policies and decisions people make. The two are linked through the challenges faced when dealing with environmental or social issues and the activism involved in facing those issues.
Several events were planned to take place during the week, including a service learning and camping trip in the Michaux State Forest, which consists of 85,000 acres in Cumberland, Franklin and Adams counties in Pennsylvania and stretches along the Appalachian Trail, as well as a film screening of “Promised Land,” both of which were organized by Jean-Paul Benowitz, the director of student transition programs and assistant director of academic advising. The areas students learned about were protected and preserved by the Civilian Public Service program of the Franklin Roosevelt administration. The camping trip taught students about the history of the trail and the conservation efforts involved in its upkeep. The goal of the trip was to help students gain a better understanding of how the environment connects to their daily lives. “Students will camp in the forest, learn about environmental conservation efforts both past and present and engage in conservation work in the Michaux State Forest and on the Appalachian Trail,” Benowitz said.
“Promised Land,” directed by Gus Van Sant, follows hydraulic fracturing and the economic and environmental effects it has on a small rural town when a corporation tries to secure drilling rights in the community. “In an effort to streamline the co-curricular programming offered to students, the Diversity Film Series is collaborating with other programs on campus to provide students with one series of films covering a wide range of topics rather than many competing programs,” Benowitz said.
Dr. David Bowne, associate professor of biology, also conducted an Etown environmental walk around campus. The walk began at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 21 and occurred during International Peace Day. The walk focused on further helping students understand the importance of the preserving the environment and the impact the environment can have on students’ daily lives.
The week’s events also included discussions and debates. The environmental policy discussion, organized by Jonathan Rudy, the peacemaker-in-residence, discussed such topics as how policy decisions and activism can help or hurt each other’s goals. Panelists for this discussion included Thomas Murray, currently involved in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife restoration project at Hershey Wetlands, Joanne Kilgore, Esq., director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter and former legal director at the Center for Coalfield Justice, working on matters such as natural gas extraction and John Quigley, former secretary of Pennsylvania department of conservation and natural resources and a national leader on sustainable shale gas development.
The environmental justice debate, organized by Shah, discussed the intersection of environmental policy and poverty, as well as the impacts of environmental decisions across different groups. The panelists for the debate were Matthew Haar, Esq., a litigation attorney and member of the Saul Ewing LLP Oil and Gas practice and Donald A. Brown, scholar-in-residence, Sustainability Ethics and Law and a professor at Widener University of Law. “There are different views on everything,” Shah said. She also hoped the debate would show how different perspectives respond to the same idea. The debate focused on how the panelists responded based on their jobs and beliefs. The responses they made can help the audience understand what various groups see differently about environmental or social issues and where they see eye-to-eye.
Other events included the Etown Walk to discuss environmental issues on campus and in students’ daily lives and a book club, “New perspectives on environmental justice: Gender, sexuality and activism,” discussing the roles of women in environmentalism as well as the intersection of gender, sexuality and environmental issues. “We’ve tried to create a series of events that will attract a variety of people with a variety of interests,” Shah said. “The idea is to bring people with diverse ideas together in order to hold a larger conversation about environmental and social justice issues and show how anyone can play a part.”
The Social Justice and Environmental Awareness Week, sponsored by the Social Justice Week committee, ran from Friday, Sept. 19 to Thursday, Sept. 25.
