The Ask, Communicate, Teach Tolerance (ACT) campaign kicked off Thursday in the Ceddia Union Building as the ACT committee addressed what the campaign means to them.
The committee was formed after a screenshot of a Facebook post that promoted racially sensitive material that spread around campus. The post mentioned Shippensburg University’s influx of multicultural students.
The three objectives of ACT were mentioned at the event, one promoting racial understanding. This specific objective is aimed “to create a culture in the Shippensburg community that encourages members to seek contemporary understanding of the social construct of race and racial issues.”
SU student Jiyana Wright mentioned that the organization plans to build understanding.
“Knowing if you don’t agree with someone, that’s OK, but we want to provide a safe space to discuss those issues,” Wright said. “I wanted to be the change I wanted to see.”
The second objective is to build solidarity. After the Facebook post, various members of the SU community and the Shippensburg community joined together in the hockey rink on SU’s campus to come together in solidarity within the Black Lives Matters Movement.
“We are seeking to bring together people of the university community and the broader Shippensburg Township despite ethnicity, economic status, religious beliefs or cultural background,” according to ACT.
The final objective is to educate.
“We would like to educate all people and begin to dismiss stereotypes and prejudices through innovative academia,” according to ACT.
The final objective is to educate. “We would like to educate all people and begin to dismiss stereotypes and prejudices through innovative academia,” according to ACT.
It is essential for a program like this to be instated on a campus so diverse, in order to allow campus to come together in solidarity and to allow a place of higher education to be a safe space, which influences the level of education students can receive.
“It’s pretty cool cause it lets people learn about diversity on campus,” SU student Joshua Smith said. “Without knowledge of the community, you don’t have an understanding of [the cultures].”
“It’s not a black or a white thing. Not a man thing or a woman thing. It’s a human concern,” associate vice president of Student Affairs, David Lovett said.
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