Student Union

Homelessness Awareness Week 2009
11.14 - 11.22

Homelessness Awareness Week is an annual nationwide event dedicated to fighting hunger and homelessness both nationally and internationally. How does the experience of homelessness affect one’s life?  What can be done to address this issue?  Social justice groups across campus have joined forces this week to put on a plethora of events exploring the issues at hand.

Press Release via Bon Appetit:

Earlier this year Bon Appétit became the first food service company in the country to sign an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), which represents thousands of workers who pick tomatoes in Florida. The agreement creates a code of conduct for Florida tomato growers in an effort to improve wages and working conditions for the workers.  Bon Appétit pledged to serve only tomatoes grown on farms owned by those who would agree to sign the code of conduct. The code requires that workers be paid a fair minimum wage, that a process be established for workers to pursue complaints without fear of retribution, that worker safety processes be improved, and that third party monitoring be implemented to insure that the code of conduct is followed.

Alderman Farms, a commercial tomato grower located in Boynton Beach, Florida, became the first company to sign the code of conduct. As the tomato harvest begins this month in Florida, Alderman Farms is the only grower that will supply tomatoes to Bon Appetit’s Washington University account.  The company grows primarily grape tomatoes, meaning that other varieties of tomatoes will not be available on the Washington University campus for the next few months.

UPDATE: Media hits about the Flash Mob

Sierra Club Radio
Missouri Power Shift http://www.missouri.powershift09.org/
National Power Shift http://www.powershift09.org...
River Front Times http://bit.ly/2haqSG
Sierra Student Coalition http://tinyurl.com/y8m4acr
It's Getting Hot In Here http://tinyurl.com/ylb7v49
Campus Progress http://tinyurl.com/yzf83of
Student Life http://www.studlife.com/
Student Union www.su.wustl.edu
Earth Stream  ‪http://www.earth-stream.com/Earth/Pollution-and-Warming/VIDEO
WashU-flashmob-confronts-Coal-Executives_18_196__214066.html‬
STL Today http://tinyurl.com/yjagf3k
Rainforest Action Network http://understory.ran.org/2009/11/04/flashmob-at-americas-energy-future-...
Earth Blips http://earthblips.dailyradar.com/video/green-action-flashmob/
KWMU/NPR http://tinyurl.com/ylh8rse
St. Louis Activist Hub
Green Corps Environmental Leadership
Responsible Endowments Coalition

NOTE: This blog post is courtesy of Will Fischer and Green Action

Something loud is afoot on our sleepy campus in St. Louis. Washington University students are beginning to re-discover what connects them. Students that have never successfully worked together have just executed the largest direct action on our campus. The target: big coal’s influence on our institution.

At the end of this summer, Washington University appointed two new members to its board of trustees, Gregory Boyce, CEO of Peabody Energy, and Steven F. Leer, CEO of Arch Coal. As you most likely know, they are the one-two of coal mining who together preside over 13 billion tons of proven coal reserves. They are both deeply involved in mountaintop coal mining, destroying communities and ecosystems across Appalachia. For years they have lobbied against positive protective legislation, including the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Now, they check our chancellor’s every action and shape the future of our institution. This comes in the wake of the formation of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization (CCCU) last December. This research group, funded by (guess) Peabody, Arch Coal, and the local utility Ameren, plans to build a 1 megawatt demonstration carbon capture & sequestration plant on our campus. To read about the truth, see here.

And this last Monday, our administration organized “America’s Energy Future,” a symposium to which Steven F. Leer of Arch Coal and Fred Palmer of Peabody Energy, among others, were invited to discuss our energy “future.” It was a five-hour-long symposium culminating in a reception in the new student center (to see a program description, see here). We saw presentations on “Green Coal” where earth movers the size of houses were depicted moseying through fields. There were a couple champions of reality, but the overarching theme was deceit. There was nearly zero representation from renewable energy companies. What is the “future” according to our administration? Well, it looks a lot like our present: coal, oil, and nuclear. This is not OUR Energy Future.

To coincide with the conference, we held a rally, a press conference, an alternate symposium titled “OUR Energy Future,” and executed a silent flash mob and banner-drop to challenge Big Coal on campus!

We had unsuccessfully lobbied to change the name of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization and remained silent since the appointing of the trustees. We really couldn’t take it anymore. We saw an opportunity- and they just made it so easy.

A coalition of student groups, including the student-run farm The Burning Kumquat, Students for Endowment Transparency, and Green Action planned a direct action to challenge our university’s failure to recognize the legitimacy of renewable energy. During their plush reception in our student center, over 100 students entered the building and dispersed themselves among the assembled crowd. Along the balconies lining the reception were five two-person banner drop teams. On a signal, four teams dropped their banners over the balcony, baring messages including “Coal Is Never Clean” and “Our Energy Future.” At the same time, the 100 assembled students raised their fists to display yellow wristbands made of global warming crime scene tape and held up yellow signs with the “Beyond Coal” logo. The final banner was dropped over the main staircase bearing the words “Power Beyond Coal” painted among students’ signatures. A student addressed the silent crowd with a megaphone, “We present to you a banner bearing our signatures as a petition on behalf of this and future generations. We will not stand aside while executives from Arch Coal and Peabody paint a dirty energy future for our school and our nation. We believe that America's real energy future uses renewable, socially responsible energy sources," and invited them to our alternate symposium. It was fantastic- ethereal- and it’s all on tape.

Where do we go now? Our Student Union Senate plans to pass a resolution denouncing Washington University’s use of the “clean coal” marketing slogan, supporting Monday’s direct action, and demanding the university change the name of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization. We will maintain the alliances we have developed and work on involving more students to feed off of the energy we have created. We will push forward, gaining momentum in our rally against the unjust actions and policies of our administration. This is the beginning- AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO KICK ASH!

Student Union is pushing for extended dining hours in the Village. The Montana administration recently conducted a poll to determine the appropriate way to move forward and Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling for the following:

• Keep the Grill open until 2 a.m on Friday and Saturday.
• Keep Stir Fry open until 9 p.m. on Sunday-Thursday.
• Conduct a pilot program from the beginning of the Spring semester to the beginning of Spring Break to ensure that extending dining hours in the Village is financially self sustaining.
• Conduct a survey of North Side residents to get more data about Village dining.

For more information, download the following attachments to see the proposed resolution and survey data.