This week, I got to discuss the Andrews University Social Justice Club with Sara Santana (junior, psychology) and dig deep into reasons why the club was started, how they impact the campus, what their purpose is, and what some future events may be.
Why did the Social Justice Club start?
The Social Justice Club is young, only formed around two years ago by the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department. The club's primary purpose is to keep people aware and informed of issues in our present world, build a stronger community for behavioral science majors and minors, and promote networking opportunities within sociological and anthropological fields.
What does the club do on campus?
As I talked about in the previous question, SJC was mainly made for the social sciences, thus the name; however, we still need to include other social issues surrounding students on and off campus. Depending on the officers and current issues, we plan events like forums, Tuesday choices, and mental health days for members and non-members throughout the fall and spring semesters.
What are some things you are looking to change or bring to campus?
Bringing awareness to specific issues, especially in the social sciences, is one of many things we want to get to campus as the Social Justice Club. Not only that, but being able to build a community between members and AU students around campus. We also want students to feel more comfortable talking about current events at Andrews and worldwide.
How can others help with the purpose of your club?
One way to support the purpose of our club is to simply be aware that we are an active club and just be on the lookout for new events. (Make sure to follow us @ausocialjusticeclub on Instagram!) Another way to help us with the purpose of our club is to suggest events and ask us if we can bring specific changes around campus—since that technically is the primary purpose of our club.
Do you have any events coming up this semester?
We’ll post the dates of our upcoming events on our Instagram page. Our next event should be sometime this February, so watch out! We will be having a “We’re Not Really Strangers” themed event for the students–either members or non-members–to get to know each other and themselves. We also decided to do that as one of our events to prompt people to reflect on themselves and get their minds off schoolwork for a bit.
We also have merch coming up pretty soon! All members are getting a sweatshirt designed by our very own graphic designer, Uccitly Caballero (senior, psychology) and we made extra orders if people who are not current members of the Social Justice Club want to buy them as well. Our design is different from previous years, but we are all very proud of it and hope everyone likes it too. We are also teaming up with WEAAU and the Social Work club on an event, so be on the lookout for that as well.
Any other broader goals in mind?
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had everything up in the air until this spring semester regarding events and merch. However, some of us are starting to write up a better plan for next year with events with different clubs on campus and our events throughout the semester. This semester will be more of a test trial to see if people are interested in certain circumstances, and we’ll make sure to accommodate more members next year. Because we are still a very young club, we don’t have as many members as we hope to have, but we are hoping that by the end of the semester, we will be able to persuade more and more people to join our club next year.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.