Student groups unite to celebrate women's accomplishments, rights

Women's accomplishments, social struggles and political rights will be the focus of discussion and celebration Monday night in an event sponsored by the Women's Student Association and the Feminist Majority Alliance.\nThe event, an International Women's Day celebration, commemorates the end of Women's History month, said WSA member and event coordinator Amanda Clerkin, a senior.\nThe activities will begin at 6 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union State Rooms East and West with an open house where students will be able to visit tables and booths of each organization involved with the event, Clerkin said. Starting at 7 p.m., various members of the groups will give presentations, poetry readings or present music pieces in an open microphone session.\n"International Women's Day is a time to recognize the contributions of women all around the world," said WSA co-president Sarah Oberlander, a senior.\nBoth organizations would like to present a forum for students, staff and faculty to get information about student and community groups, including the Helene G. Simon Hillel Center, Monroe County Habitat for Humanity, No Sweat, Campus for Choice and other activist groups, Oberlander said.\n"On a campus this size, there are hundreds of events weekly, and it is difficult to publicize them all to the entire campus," Oberlander said. "Learning about diverse organizations will also allow students to discover the solidarity that is present on this campus."\nThis event also marks the first official program co-sponsored by the Feminist Majority Alliance, a new women's campus organization, said the group's campus unit coordinator, senior Ellen Pease.\n"We both agreed this would be a really good way for our groups to come together," Clerkin said.\nThe Feminist Majority Alliance's table will focus on issues including gender apartheid in Afghanistan, and those interested in such issues can receive more information during the open house, Pease said.\nAnother group to be featured during the evening is Habitat for Humanity, an organization that is not often associated with women's issues, Clerkin said.\n"I was struck by an e-mail I received from them that explained that two-thirds of all single parent homes in poverty in the U.S. are women," Clerkin said.\nRepresentatives from Habitat for Humanity will be at the open house and afterward to discuss a recent program project on a house being built by all women volunteers, she said.\nThe idea behind the night's event is to provoke interest in activist groups on campus and to get students and faculty more interested in women's issues in the communities through these organizations, Clerkin said.\n"I hope that students will get the chance to learn something about different cultures and lifestyles in a way that is different from a classroom lecture," Clerkin said.\nWhile the night deals with issues that affect both women and men, the program is intended to bring out women's accomplishments on a local, national and international level and raise awareness about issues that still face women all over the globe, Clerkin said.\n"I think that a lot of people when they hear feminist think it is a bad word," Clerkin said. "We want to show the different ways you can celebrate women"