Consortium Students Form Social Justice Group

Worcester, MA - Couscous--it’s not just a side dish anymore. For a socially aware group of students within the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, couscous has become a main course. A new cross-campus student alliance, the Consortium of United Students, or Cous-cous for short, was formed during the fall semester.

The group is a Consortium-wide student organization that strives to promote cross-campus activism in Worcester and the region. “We’re students who want to meet other students that are involved in social justice causes,” said Drew Wilson, a Computer Science major at WPI who was instrumental in the formation of Couscous. “We’re from different colleges and universities in the Consortium, but we want to work together for a better world.”

Some of the social justice issues the group intends to tackle include the exploitation of sweatshop workers, human rights violations, the war in Iraq, environmental issues, and fighting racism, sexism, and inequality. In addition to issues of social justice, the group also plans to create a forum for any issue or concern that might affect Consortium students as a whole—such as joint events among institutions, cross-registration or the Consortium shuttle service.

Cous-cous started to take shape last spring when Students Advocating Change (SAC), a student group at Assumption College, hosted a Sweatshop Awareness Week. One of the featured speakers during the week was Dr. Robert J.S. Ross, professor of Sociology and director of the International Studies Stream at Clark University. Ross was among the founders of Clark’s program in Urban Development and Social Change and is the author of Slaves to Fashion: Poverty and Abuse in the New Sweatshops, a provocative and accessible history of the sweatshop. During his visit to Assumption, Ross urged members of SAC to reach out to similar student groups within the Consortium. Jaclyn Sargent, a Pyschology major and co-director of SAC at Assumption, set up a meeting with members of Justice, a social awareness student organization at WPI, and Cous-cous was born. “Students can feel somewhat isolated on their individual campuses,” said Sargent. “We wanted to join together and create more cohesion among the Consortium schools.”

For more information about the group, please visit their Web site at http://worcesterunited.com.