The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Week highlights social justice

By By Kitt Wolfenden, News Staff

With just a few weeks of school left, the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) aims to get out the word on campus about social justice issues. Last week, the group kicked off Spring Forward, a week-long event series that aimed to draw the attention of Northeastern students.
‘We’re a pretty small group, but we feel we can have a larger role on campus, and we think students will be interested in what we do,’ said PSA vice president Dan Doyle. ‘We want to build awareness on each subject and get our name out there.’
Doyle said each event focuses on a different issue relating to this theme.
The event series kicked off Thursday at 7 p.m. with ‘An Evening with Noam Chomsky’ in 450 Dodge Hall, featuring the political activist and author. Other events included a free fair trade coffee tasting, a government accountability and transparency forum, a discussion about immigration with Ray Ybarra and a film screening about water as a human right.
‘A lot of events are coming together to show what we’re about and raise awareness on issues we think are critical,’ said PSA President Rebecca Morton. ‘We have a range of goals. It would be amazing to get more kids in the group, and for other people who don’t know about these issues, it’s a way to start educating them.’
Mayuri Patel, PSA’s treasurer, said she sees these events as a way to target average Northeastern students who she believes are ignorant to the current crises that PSA wants to address.
‘It’s a week of education,’ she said.’ ‘We want to get the normal Northeastern student who doesn’t watch the news, go to events or know what’s happening in the world to come, be interested and help out.’
PSA members said they hope that these events will make their organization more popular and well-known.
‘Before, PSA was a really small student organization that basically wasn’t really going anywhere,’ Patel said. ‘Membership was hard to come by. We weren’t appealing to students. This year we’re making a conscious effort to reach out to students and educate the student body at NU.’
Morton said she was excited to incite a reaction, but wasn’t sure what to expect.
‘I’m not really sure what we’re going to see,’ she said. ‘These are definitely progressive, social justice events, and we’re going to present them to the student body and see what response we get. Of course not everyone will agree, but any reaction is a positive thing.’
Louie Piscottano, a freshman business major, said he valued PSA and supported their increasing presence on campus.
‘To me it seems that a group such as the PSA is an important social group. Their views may not be those of the majority, but isn’t that the point?’ he said.’ ‘It is the dissenters that bring issues to the forefront so that society can face them head-on.’
However, not everyone is interested.’ Sarah Dichter, a freshman biology major, said she will not attend Spring Forward.
‘I’m not really big on speakers and events,’ Dichter said.’ ‘I care about and support their causes, but I don’t want to go listen to people talk about it.’
For those that feel the opposite, Patel said the events should spark an interest in the cause.
‘ ‘You’ll thank yourself for it 10 years down the line,’ she said.

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