Being mindful at MC

By Jessica Walendukanis
Courier Staff

This week marked the beginning of a month long program titled “Anti-Violence Week” at Mon-mouth College presented by the Social Awareness Coalition (SAC).

Since this week was so busy, SAC decided to make the events last an entire month in hopes to keep the awareness about violence up, instead of just one week.

Vance Pierce, coordinator of intercultural life, hoped this week would open the eyes of students to issues such as sexism, racism, class issues, xenophobia and prejudice.

According to Mollie Williams, SAC member and co-coordinator of “Anti-Violence Week,” the program began from one suggestion given by another member and everyone agreed it would be a great thing to do.

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, students watched “City of God,” a movie about the youth violence in Brazil.  Afterwards, there was a discussion about the violence seen in the movie and in schools across America. 

Other days that SAC has planned to cover include “Genocides,” “War,” “Domestic Violence” and “Hate Crimes.”

“SAC is very concerned with the lack of handy cap accessibility on our campus. We have repeatedly requested an awning outside of Stockdale where the elevator is. This causes anyone who has to wait for the elevator to wait in the rain.  This unfortunately has not been changed yet but we are still working on getting an awning and other accommodations throughout the school,”  said Williams.

SAC is also concerned about the lack of paper recycling on campus. “Luckily Students for Environmental Awareness (SEA) are working on getting paper recycling on our campus,” mentioned Williams.  

Since SAC is made up of leaders from SEA, CWA, CEA, International Club, PRISM and other students interested in social awareness, issues that each group believes in is what the SAC tries to address.

Social Awareness Coalition, which recieved its name this year, started out as Social Awareness Week (SAW), which was a group that put together the SAW week last spring. 

It was started by Kelly Winfrey, co-coordinator of “Social Awareness Week,” who had the idea, during a Student Chapin meeting, to inform the campus about the racism that is in our society and that is exactly what they are doing.