On Friday, February 28, 2020, I attended the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement’s Brown Bag Discussion titled “No Justice, No Peace! Building Student Power” with Kalia Harris. She recently graduated from George Mason University and works for the Virginia Student Power Network as a queer, femme, black activist. Her focus is on student organizing and coalition building at the VSPN on social, racial, economic justice campaigns. Coalition building can be defined as “when groups and/or individuals share decision-making, responsibility, and partnership to work together towards a shared goal” and Kalia discussed this in-depth with regard to creating an effective student campaign. The VSPN includes young organizers and allies interested in racial, economic, undocumented, LGBTQ+, women’s, educational, labor, and environmental justice. Kalia lives in Richmond and came to the Brown Bag Discussion to discuss why she is so interested in this topic, and why student organizing can be so effective.
Kalia Harris was aware of the racist incidents that have occurred on our campus and connected her experiences with using student power to make an impact. Not only did this CCE Brown Bag connect to me as a college student, but it can be applied in the greater leadership context. If you don’t have a shared goal (i.e. stopping racism on UR’s campus, and implementing an Africana Studies department at UR) you cannot end injustices; the politics can get in the way, but building on a universal goal can be what really makes the big impact. For example, multiple student groups on campus might have different structures and individual goals, but if a cohort of groups can come together with a common goal, that’s when real change can occur. Kalia said that the elements of a successful campaign are identifying the problem and the issues, creating a demand, framing the issues to the constituency, strategy for the campaign, and the tactic.
I really enjoyed Kalia Harris’s and the Virginia Student Power Network’s mission to evoke change through student movements. We can apply these methods to the issues we present in Critical Thinking and writing research papers that may push for change.
Anna Marston
This is such an interesting and relevant topic to discuss. The idea of needing a shared goal in order to be successful is something that I think is often implied, but not often explicitly promoted. People are inclined to argue over the logistics of a plan and get stuck in the process, and perhaps the best way to mobilize them is to remind them the goal is the same and it is urgent.