The Santa Clara

Issue date: 1/18/07 Section: Scene

Media Credit: SHAWN HANNA Beth Tellman, President of Santa Clarans For Social Justice, praying during a vigil at the School of the Americas protest in Georgia last November.

On Jan. 9, members of Santa Clarans for Social Justice gathered in Campus Ministry for their first meeting of winter quarter. During the meeting, members interested in improving the Santa Clara community generated some exciting ideas for future action.

"It was good to see a lot of the same faces," said Beth Tellman, the student leader of SC4SJ. "We had lot of exciting ideas about what people want to work on."

Member Anna Wheatley described her fellow SC4SJ members as "very dedicated, compassionate and proactive individuals," adding that she is always impressed by the creativity, enthusiasm and awareness brought to their meetings.

From devoting countless hours working with the Fair Trade Coalition to spending their nights huddling in their version of a refugee tent, the SC4SJ has learned that hard work really does pay off.

"Probably one of the most recent exciting moments was when we were mentioned in a Jan. 16th editorial in the 'New York Times' for our efforts in raising awareness of the genocide in Sudan through the set up of the refugee tent on campus," said Wheatley.

Santa Clara recently transitioned to a new coffee provider, Barefoot Coffee Roasters, making campus coffee 100% Fair Trade. While Working with the Fair Trade Coalition, SC4SJ held talks with fair trade coffee farmers, passed out backpack pins and sold fair trade chocolate as a way to educate the Santa Clara campus community about the benefits of fair trade. The group hopes to expand the fair trade policy to additional campus items.

As part of their mission to advocate awareness and action on behalf of social justice issues, one of the group's plans is to create a magazine called "OneWorld," which will take shape over the course of this quarter and hopefully come out this May. The publication will involve student contributions in the form of various articles on social justice topics.

SC4SJ is considering continuing their focus on Darfur. This would involve asking the university not to invest in company stock that's supporting the government of Sudan, which, Tellman said, "directly or indirectly promotes an economy that is causing genocide."

More involved students results in more issues brought to the table and the ability to pursue a more diverse agenda, so the group is always on the lookout for new and energetic members.

"Oftentimes it is easy to get discouraged when working in the area of social justice just because the scope is so large and you are trying to reach a lot of people to affect change," said Wheatley. "It would be unrealistic to think that one group like SC4SJ could make everyone care and act on every issue."

However, Wheatley confided, "I like to believe that everyone is essentially good and, given the opportunity, will act upon that goodness."

Weekly meetings are held Tuesday at 7:30 in the Campus Ministry conference room.

Contact Kristina Chiapella at kchiapella@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.

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