Some OU students devote their time on campus to working toward goals like mandatory cultural competency classes, improved race relations, meaningful administration progress regarding rape culture and other problems on campus.
College can be four years of partying, four years of studying or maybe both. And for some, it’s four years of fighting.
Black Lives Action Coalition, Ohio University Student Union, Sierra Student Coalition and F--kRapeCulture are some of the groups at OU working toward goals like mandatory cultural competency classes, improved race relations, meaningful administration progress regarding rape culture and other problems on campus.
“There’s a very active group of students on our campus that genuinely care about making this a better place, that care about ending rape culture, that care about making sure that everyone knows black lives matter, that care about the environment,” Grant Stover, a member of Sierra Student Coalition and a previous Post columnist, said.
Members of the activist community tend to agree that activism is not a “college phase.”
“I think that really dismisses both what we want these groups to be and also the impacts these groups can have,” Alyssa Ensminger, F--kRapeCulture member, said.
To think F--kRapeCulture is something she’ll participate in for four years, “put on (her) resume to get some cool protest photos,” and then move on from is not accurate, Ensminger said.
“Different forms of oppression exist in different ways although they all intersect with each other,” Ryan Powers, OU Student Union member, said. “The work these groups do is very important in educating the population about specific forms of oppression.”
The activist community is not meant to be intimidating, Oliver Stone, a member of BLAC, said.
“We’re not that crazy,” Stone said. “We’re obviously all really nice and kind people. If you’d like to, you should definitely join.”
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