Organizations sponsor Social Justice Involvement Fair
The event marks the second year of the fair.
Published Sept. 14, 2010
About 23 social justice organizations gathered Tuesday at Lowry Mall for the Social Justice Involvement Fair.
Sponsored by the Feminist Student Union, Four Front, the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative, the Women’s Center and the Social Justice Office of Student Affairs, the fair aimed to expose students to MU’s vast variety of social justice organizations, said Noor Azizan-Gardner, Director of Diversity Programming and Professional Development of the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative.
“We thought it would be really cool to do it on Lowry Mall,” Azizan-Gardner said. “The point of the fair is to get students engaged with social justice on campus and the community. We have so many great organizations, and it’s wonderful to get them all excited to be on campus, and for students to expand their horizons.”
She and Feminist Student Union Co-President Lauren Olson and Center for Social Justice staff member Struby Struble were responsible for planning the logistics of the event, and all three said they were pleased with the outcome.
“This is the second year we’ve done this event,” Struble said. “Feminist Student Union, a great organization on campus, and the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative, which is a great office on campus, wanted to raise awareness on the various social justice organizations we have on campus and in the community and ways to get involved.”
Chief Diversity Officer Roger Worthington said another purpose of the fair was to advertise for the Mizzou Diversity Summit, an event being held Oct. 20 to Oct. 21 to open dialogue between students, faculty, staff and high-level administrators about diversity at MU.
“It is a biannual summit for students, faculty, staff and administrators at Mizzou to meet and talk about important issues related to diversity and inclusion on campus for everybody, and how diversity benefits everybody,” Worthington said. “Everyone should be interested and concerned about how successful we are as a campus at being inclusive and welcoming.”
Olson said the fair was her first experience planning a large-scale event.
“I’m very pleased with how it turned out,” Olson said. “It’s a really good opportunity to show students there are other ways to be involved on campus and a part of the community, while giving back to the community as well. If it wasn’t for things like this, I feel like there would just be a whole lot of people on campus without somewhere to go.”
The women started planning for the event in June.
“I was working over the summer and the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative contacted me over the summer and said that they would like to pair with FSU and other social justice organizations on campus to plan this event,” Olson said. “This has been a few months in the making.
The event offered free pizza, a strategy Azizan-Gardner said was a tactic to get more participants.
“Pizza is always a good draw,” Azizan-Gardner said.
Avy Kea, External Vice President of the Asian American Association, said her organization attended the event to gain recognition on campus.
“We’re tabling today to let the campus know we’re on campus,” Kea said. “It’s a great way to reel new members in and show them that there is a group like us at Mizzou.”