Two students involved with DU’s Sustainability Committee (SUSCOM) are working to add a new focus to campus sustainability, not through environmental issues, but through social justice.
The group, funded by SUSCOM, is led by Matt Dunchan, a sophomore international studies student, and Alex Roth, a sophomore political science student. The two are heading the new branch of SUSCOM and are currently looking for new membership.
“Our broad goal is to connect all of the major pockets on campus where there are a lot of social justice issues that are being focused on,” said Dunchan. “We want to reach out to the groups like the Black Student Alliance (BSA), Latino Student Alliance (LSA), the Native Student Alliance (NSA) and more.”
Roth also discussed the branch of SUSCOM acting as a “hub” for connecting groups at DU who are taking on social justice issues. Roth feels that students are not taking action on such issues.
To try to gain new members, the group will seek partnerships with the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), Project Commission on Urgent Relief and Equipment (CURE) and Interfaith Advocates. Roth and Dunchan also plan to have a booth at the Center for Advocacy, Prevention and Empowerment’s (CAPE) Sexual Assault Awareness Week Carnival the week of April 21.
“Some people are almost hesitant to try to get involved because they feel they can’t make much of a difference,” said Roth. “We hope that by bringing groups together, it’s able to do that more efficiently than what has been done so far.”
Dunchan and Roth were also inspired to create a collective social justice task force after learning of the Social Justice Living and Learning Community (SJLLC) members push for a gender-neutral bathroom in the Johnson-McFarlane (JMAC) residence hall.
“That’s where this is stemming from with us,” said Roth. “Matt and I were both in the SJLLC last year, and we kind of played with the idea of starting up a social justice group on campus because in the class we learned and discussed a lot of things on campus we didn’t like or wanted to change and we felt could be bettered. The class, however, was more focused on the education aspect, rather than action-oriented.”
Roth stated many of the groups members right now are first-year students in the SJLLC, but membership is open to all DU students.
Anyone who is interested in being a part of the task force can contact Dunchan and Roth at their respective personal email addresses for more information.
