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Photo by Gray Morrison

Stevens for solidarity

Also by Kevin Shah

On Wednesday, March 22, 2017, SGA, Amnesty International, College Democrats, WCPR, University Events, and Campus Police joined efforts to host Stevens For Solidarity. This event advocated for people to take a stringent stance against hate and discrimination and promote unity across campus.

At the opening of the event, attendees made their ways around various different booths in the Babbio Atrium. Students had the opportunity to show their support for cultural uniqueness, diversity in beliefs, and values by signing the #StevensForSolidarity poster. Each student had the opportunity to define what solidarity meant to them and unify despite differences. #StevensForSolidarity stickers were distributed as a sign of unity instance. Students were also able to convey their views with a “The America I Believe In…” poster and participated in photo activism as an opportunity to grow the event online. The event created a Snapchat filter in order to spread awareness through social media and urge others to join the movement.

Many organizations unified to take a peaceful stand to ensure that the human rights of all be acknowledged, respected and preserved. Engineers for Sustainable World, which promotes engineering initiatives that raise environmental awareness, sold cookies and snacks as a fundraiser for environmental initiatives. Omega Phi Beta, a multicultural sorority on campus, got attendees to sign a petition against violence against women. Stevens Torch Alliance fought against recent legislation on transgender bathrooms and raised awareness about the LGBTQ+ community.

To kick off the event, Dr. Sara Klein, Assistant Vice President for Students Affairs, introduced the first speaker of the night, Kristen Velloza. Ms. Velloza is an Executive assistant for Amnesty International USA, an organization fighting for human rights internationally, independent of any political ideology, economic interest or religion. She explained the initiative to unite in face of national and international problems that have occurred due to changes in policies following recent elections. Ms. Velloza highlighted the importance of college students to take an initiative and work together to accept each other’s differences in ethnicity and backgrounds on a national scale. A stand, she hopes, will resonate in the future of society. She described the efforts of her chapter and discussed the importance of grassroots activism, which relies heavily on freedom of speech.

Following her speech, Dr. Klein introduced Thomas Daly, President of the Student Government Association (SGA), who spoke about embracing differences within the Stevens community. Mr. Daly began by describing his own living situation, which consists of roommates of various races and cultures. He explained that with time, they learned to become accepting and understanding of each other’s background and beliefs despite their differences. Mr. Daly expressed his intentions to make the campus an area which is accepting and understanding of one another’s diversity and hopes that each student will embrace their culture and feel allowed to express it freely.

Following these two speeches, students were given some more time to talk with each other and the booths. The event then proceeded to a solidarity march around campus. Chants included “People united will not be divided,” ”Love not hate makes America great,” “Silence not violence,” and “Tell me what equality looks like? This is what equality looks like.” They made their way up from Babbio, up Greek Row, through campus gates, and back down. These chants were promoted around campus to express the importance of accepting every individual on campus for their diverse backgrounds and beliefs.

Stevens For Solidarity brought many students from various organizations and backgrounds together. One major contributor, Soindos Abdah, a Stevens student in the SGA, expressed that Stevens for Solidarity is “one of the first events with this type of precedence. It aims to bring awareness and remind everyone to be considerate of each other. Equality should be maintained and does not stop because of politics. Differences should not hinder education.”

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