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Clubs Making a Change

Exploring Activism Organizations on UNC Asheville’s Campus

By UNC Asheville

October 21^st, 2022

By Sawyer Serdula '23

UNC Asheville is known throughout the student body and wider community for our drive and commitment to positive social change. Students have come together to form clubs and organizations centering around a range of topics, from advocating for climate change policy, encouraging voter engagement, working towards food sovereignty and more. Here are just a few of the clubs that are making a change on campus and beyond.

Political Science Club

The Political Science Club works to engage voters, help with voter registration, and make sure people get to the polls during election years. With the midterm elections coming this fall, the PoliSci club has been busy with their voter engagement efforts.

Hope Sikes, a political science junior, explained the multiple facets of voter registration and how students can help get involved. “Anyone can volunteer. It’s communal, working with so many people. We don’t just have Voter Registration Day, we also go to first-year seminar classes to register students, give a presentation about voting and all the details with it.”

With a large population of students eligible, but not registered to vote, PoliSci has made it a priority to provide resources and education to first time voters here on campus. “Voting as a college student can be difficult. Sometimes one dorm building is in one precinct, and the next is in the other,” said Sikes. “Asheville is complicated, our maps are just confusing. So we offer resources, like addresses for registration, or how and where to vote in our county.”

Voting is an essential right in our country, and the PoliSci club works tirelessly to make sure everyone has access to, and an equal opportunity to vote for their representatives.

College Democrats and Republicans

The College Democrats and College Republicans are both social clubs for the politically active students here at UNC Asheville. Allison Lyall, a current political science senior, shared her experience as a member of the College Republicans. “We talk about our beliefs and how we do differ from a lot of people here, but also how we want others to know that, there’s a lot we have in common. As a queer person in the Republican Club, they’re very open to everything. A lot of people don’t realize that about us.”

While events in previous years have been delayed due to COVID, the College Republicans are looking forward to being present and active on campus again. “We want to have a debate with the College Democrats, that everyone could come to, and hear our views, see what we think,” said Lyall. “These clubs are for building communities that are like you…we have a community here for both sides.”

No matter your affiliation, the College Democrats and Republicans welcome informed discussion and respectful conversations, as well as creating communities for politically active students here at UNC Asheville.

Sunrise Movement

The Sunrise Movement is a nationwide campaign for more aggressive climate change policies, such as the Green New Deal. Sunrise first gained widespread attention with their sit-in at the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Working with political advocates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sunrise had found a home across the country, in local communities and on college campuses.

Here at UNC Asheville, Sunrise is a prevalent advocacy group, frequently tabeling and holding events on the Quad. Joe Franco, a junior international policies major, shares plans for Sunrise this semester. “We’ve already started, we had an interest meeting,” Franco said. “It was super successful. We had an action downtown, for Parking Day, where you take over a parking spot and convert it into a park.”

Part of Sunrise’s goals is to advocate for better land management, along with a just transition and living wages for all workers.

“In this day and age it’s so easy to feel hopeless when it comes to climate change. As young people, we’re the ones that are going to be affected by climate change the most and it feels like the people in power aren’t looking out for us. There’s so much negative news…so Sunrise has been a really helpful place to find hope together,” said Franco.

The Sunrise Movement has a hub here at UNC Asheville, as well as in the greater Asheville community. Together, these groups continue to advocate for policy changes, back Green politicians, and inform the community about climate change. To get involved, reach out to @sunrisemvmtunca on Instagram.

DIVEST

UNC Asheville Divest, an organization founded in 2015, is committed to fully divesting our $55.2 million endowment from fossil fuels. While divesting can be used for any social issue, like private prisons or firearms, Divest at UNCA is focused on environmentally harmful investments.

Gillian Gavenus, a junior in the Environmental Studies department, is co-leader of Divest. One of their greatest achievements, she states, is that “we’ve divested 10% of our endowment from UNC Management to Walden, which is a company that works on socially responsible investing. They’re more sustainable, and align better with our morals.” Divest maintains that the state of the climate is an emergency, and they will continue to put pressure on the administration to fully divest from fossil fuels.

“We’re trying to expand right now, and learn what else our student body would like to do with Divest. We did a ‘Break Up With Your Bank’ campaign, some tabeling during GreenFest,” Gavenus explained. “We’re focusing on some individual ways you can divest from fossil fuels.”

To learn more about divestment on UNC Asheville’s campus, follow Divest on instagram at @unca.divest, or reach out to them at uncadivest@gmail.com.

To find out more information about organizations and their opportunities for involvement, check out Rocky Connect.

Footnotes

Written by Grace Serdula. Photos provided by clubs.

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FootNotes

Written by Grace Serdula. Photos provided by clubs.

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