A group of Mesa College staff members, backed by clubs and activist groups, created an advocacy fair where students could reach out to and get information on how to make their voices heard.
Rob Fremland, a Chemistry Professor at Mesa, and one of the event coordinators, said they teamed up with the Associated Student Government to make this event happen for the first time.
During the teach in, that took place in 2016 after the election, students voiced their concerns for wanting to get deeply involved and have their voices heard, but were not sure how to do so. Fremland stated the idea for the advocacy fair was to, “bring in groups for students to talk to find groups to channel their energy.”
The National Association For The Advancement of Colored People, is the oldest civil rights group in the Nation. The mission statement of the group is to “ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.” Diane Langworthy, a member representing the group during the fair, said one of the main reasons she joined the NAACP was to, “eliminate racial discrimination and prejudice.”
Even though it is a National group, there is a San Diego Branch that specifically to ensure there is “no racial hatred or racial discrimination.” Additional to the events that the group participates in, they also have lawyers on hand that aid and advise in civil rights cases that get reported through the the NAACP. You can get more information you can visit www.sandiegonaacp.org.
Linda Beers is a volunteer from the Together We Will organization, that is composed of solely volunteers and is a grassroots organization that was put together in November of 2016 a few days before the election. Even though they are a newly formed organization, they already have more than 300 thousand members nationwide and 9,000 members in San Diego alone. Beers commented, “the organization is promoting aggressive advocatism (sic).” TWW aims to provide information and direction for people passionate about making changes throughout our nation and can be considered an umbrella for other organizations of activism. The San Diego group holds a weekly event called Resist Trump Tuesday that takes place every Tuesday in front of the Senator’s office to voice their opinions. Beers stated, “the opposite of complacency is activism.” To get more information on the San Diego group you can add them on Facebook: Together We Will: Indivisible San Diego.
The National Organization for Women was another organization present at the advocacy fair. NOW has been around since the 1970s with their primary focus to fight for equal rights for women, the LGBT community, immigrants, and human sex trafficking. Kim Sontag-Mulder is the Chapter President of the San Diego Area. They meet the 3rd Wednesday of every month at the Women’s Museum in Liberty Station. This month’s meeting will focus on human sex trafficking in San Diego. Sontag-Mulder expressed her concern and urge for the community to be aware of this, since San Diego landed 13th on the FBI human trafficking list. The meetings are open to the public To get more information, you can contact Kim Sontag-Mulder on www.sandiegoNOW.org
Women’s Alliance club from Mesa had a booth at the fair to recruit new members and make students aware of the newly organized group and their affiliation with the women’s studies program. Nicole Baked, President of National Women’s Alliance, commented, “our cause is basically to advocate for women and people who identify as women on campus. We’re trying to make changes in the way that women are viewed in education.” They try to set their meetings around when the most students are able to join so there are no standard meetings, but they notify members and potential members on their Facebook page by sending out notifications to subscribers to their mailing list. The next event that club will be attending is the Earth Day event on Wed. 19th and will be selling succulents as a fundraiser.
Other booths present at the fair were the Green Party, Human Rights Campaign, Invisible San Diego, Unite Here, Student Veterans Organization, and Associated Student Government. As this was the first advocacy fair for Mesa College, Fremland hopes that it can become an annual event.
