Dear student groups, faculty, and staff interested in social activism and arts,
The Public Affairs Symposium Committee invites you and your group(s) to collaborate and submit a proposal for an educational, interactive, and creative “action” to hold as a group at the 48th Annual Public Affairs Symposium (PAS) here at Dickinson College.
PAS is a student-run group that is planning a Day of Action on Feb 22, 2011 as part of this year’s symposium theme: Social Movements in an Individualistic Society. (For more information on theme, see end of this email)This will not be your typical Dickinsonian PAS event with a talk and discussion, but instead it will emphasize action with a bustling day with dozens of live and active social movements taking over the HUB. This event will be videotaped.
We are seeking to gather students, faculty, and staff who are interested in social activism to collaborate action and movement on an issue you and your group are passionate about, and get our campus directly involved on this day: protests, painting, cooking, dancing—you plan it. Public Affairs Symposium can provide up to $500 in resources for approximately 15 approved proposals. The schedule of the day will be live movements during 11am-2pm and 4pm-7:30pm all over the HUB, featuring 3-4 movements each hour/hour and a half, followed by a “soap box” later in the evening.
SUBMISSION: Please follow the proposal guidelines attached and submit your proposal in a word document to alexpbloom@gmail.com by 11:59p.m. on Monday, November 22, 2010 with the subject line as: PAS Movement Proposal: (insert movement title here). We will return your proposal with feedback the following week after Thanksgiving for any necessary adjustments before Winter break.
We encourage you to be proactive and begin your discussion, contact, collaboration, and planning with your groups and individuals as soon as possible for a comprehensive and well-organized proposal. Attached is a list of social justice, political, religious, and art groups on campus. Partnerships are not limited to this list of invited groups. Please tap into other resources for partnerships, such as professors, faculty, staff, classes (especially in the spring), and individual students that could be passionate about your issue or could contribute something to your “action.”
Please relay this message to your groups or individuals you know who might be interested. Thank you and we wish you the best of luck on your brainstorming. Please contact us if you have any questions, comments, or concerns at tiarachg@dickinson.edu.
Take action, do something!
Sincerely,
G Tiarachristie
Dickinson College 2013
tiarachg@dickinson.edu
Alex Bloom
Dickinson College 2011
blooma@dickinson.edu
Tighe Coneys
Dickinson College 2011
coneyst@dickinson.edu
JJ Luceno
Dickinson College 2013
lucenoj@dickinson.edu
48th Annual Public Affairs Symposium, Day of Action Committee
48th Annual Public Affairs Symposium Topic:
Social Activism in an Individualistic Society
Society today is very goal oriented and time constrained: Students are double majoring, participating in 3 or more clubs, playing a sport or two to impress resumé readers; adults are working long hours with multiple jobs for extra income. Limited time of leisure, especially the weekend, becomes an all-out attempt to crash and recover for the next battle. With our goals so focused on the misconceived "road to success", there is little to no time to read the news in further depth outside of the CNN headlines. Yet, on the outskirts of our racing blinders, there is a whole world still struggling for basic human rights to clean water, education, health care, and freedoms, with which we don't dare to get involved because of our time constraint. Is the sense of community duty and thus the power of the public sphere dispersing because of our increased individuality? Are we too busy to significantly help a movement make change, outside of joining "causes" groups on facebook or placing a magnetic colored ribbon on our bumpers? Have movements simply become "fads" that fall out of "trend" and popculture because they cannot keep up with constant "throw-away, get a new" attitude as a consumer society? What is the role of techn