Dartmouth Students Stand with Staff for Fair Labor; More Sexual Assault Survivors Come Forward

Dartmouth Students Protest Against Labor Practices. Students Stand with Staff (SSS), a Dartmouth student organization, has recently held several demonstrations in support of the college's employees. The organization is pushing for restoration of pre-2011 health care benefits for all staff, ending subcontracting labor, and increasing wages to annually meet inflation rates. A member of SSS said that in 2011, when the college cut health care benefits for all employees and faculty, the staff was disproportionately targeted. For their advocacy, Students Stand with Staff has been met with indifference and even outright hostility. However, the organization is meeting with Senior Advisor to the President this week to elaborate on their concerns. [The Dartmouth]

Sexual Assault Survivor’s Column Inspires Others To Tell Their Story. Angie Epifano spoke out about being sexually assaulted as a student at Amherst College and her frustration with college’s lackadaisical response. Epifano's op-ed inspired response from students around the country. Writing anonymously, a student from Tufts University and a former student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison wrote pieces about being assaulted on campus, and the universities' lax approach in resolve the issues. "It is a well-known fact that sexual assaults are one of the most underreported crimes in the nation. And I contributed to that trend," the unnamed alumna wrote in the UW-Madison student newspaper, the Daily Cardinal. "But I never thought that university officials, or police officers, would play a part in that process," she continued, referring to school officials who discouraged her from pressing charges. [Huffington Post]

Students At New York University Asked To Create Hypothetical Terrorist Attack On The United States. Marie-Helen Maras, a decorated Navy veteran and professor of the transnational terrorism course, came under fire last Monday. Law enforcement officers have accused Maras of insulting the offers killed on September 11 with a provocative, outside-of-the-box lesson plan. In devising their hypothetical terrorist attack, students must stay within their chosen terror group’s “goals, capabilities, tactical profile, targeting pattern and operation area.” The goal of the exercise is to understand the plotting and thinking behind terrorist attacks. Maras responded to the criticism saying “the exercise is meant to prepare students for the field, to prepare them for careers in intelligence, policing, [and] counter-terrorism.” [Huffington Post]

College And University Students Protest Fossil Fuel Investments In Their Schools Endowment. Students from Cornell, Amherst, Bryn Mawr, Boston University, and Harvard (to name a few) held a National Day of Action to pressure their administrations to divest their endowment holdings from fossil fuel stocks. However, as of now, Harvard officials say they have no intention of divesting. [Public Radio International]

Aaron Brennan is a Communications Intern with Campus Progress

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