[COMM-ORG] query: are more students interested in community organizing?

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

[ed:thanks to Michael for replying to Peter's query.]

From: MBrown7387 at aol.com

Peter, I just spoke at Suffolk University in Boston, not a hotbed of 
radicalism, out of their ordering my book, Building Powerful Community 
Organizations, (Long Haul Press, 2007), and many seemed interested.  
(Also spoke recently to a class at Brandeis, but that was not so 
unusual).  But any plug for my book is much appreciated.  It seems to do 
well with undergrads, Michael

On 4/6/2009 10:03 AM, Discussion list for COMM-ORG wrote:
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> [ed: please feel welcomed to copy COMM-ORG with replies to Peter's query.]
>
> From: "Peter Dreier" <dreier at oxy.edu>
>
>
> Colleagues:
>
>
>
> I have a question for those of you who teach undergraduate courses in 
> Community Organizing: Is interest in your classes – or in community 
> organizing more generally – increasing among students on your campuses? 
> I hope you will respond quickly to this question. Here’s why:
>
>
>
> A New York Times reporter is writing a story about this phenomenon. Her 
> thesis -- which I agree with (and even wrote a few articles about last 
> year (http://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=1215; 
> http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080929/dreier) -- is that the Obama 
> campaign, and his presidency, has not only heightened awareness of 
> community organizing as a job/career/vocation, but accelerated the trend 
> of student activists looking for work as organizers upon graduation. 
> This was happening BEFORE the Obama campaign (ie the campus 
> anti-sweatshop and campus living wage movements began in the late 
> 1990s), but I think his campaign (which put heavy emphasis on recruiting 
> young people and training volunteers as organizers,) accelerated it. 
> Plus, any progressive movement requires a sense of hope and possibility, 
> and I think Obama’s campaign and election provided some of that. Groups 
> like Wellstone Action, Campus Progress (an offshoot of the Center for 
> American Progress), United Students Against Sweatshops, the AFL-CIO’s 
> Organizing Institute, and other groups that recruited and trained 
> students also contributed to this.
>
>
>
> I teach a Community Organizing course every fall, which includes an 
> internship with a community organizing group, a labor union, an 
> environmental group, or another group that does organizing work. I 
> usually have 20-25 students. Already, 42 students have registered for my 
> course for next fall. I don’t think this is because I’ve all-of-a-sudden 
> become a more popular professor. I think it has to do with the political 
> climate, Obama, the growing visibility of organizing (not only because 
> of Obama, but also because of the Palin/McCain attacks on organizers 
> that triggered a huge backlash). 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/palin-attacks-on-communit_b_129568.html
>
>
>
> My friends who work for unions, ACORN, PICO, IAF, and other organizing 
> groups tell me that they are getting more and more applicants for jobs 
> and internships. I think this is all part of the same phenomenon.
>
>
>
> Are you seeing the same trend on your campus? Please let us all know. I 
> can relay that to the NY Times reporter, who is doing the story for next 
> week, so please respond ASAP.
>
>
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
> Peter
>
> ____________________
>
> Peter Dreier
>
> E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
>
> Director, Urban & Environmental Policy Program
>
> Occidental College
>
> Los Angeles, CA 90041
>
> Phone: (323) 259-2913
>
> Email: dreier at oxy.edu
>
> Website: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier
>
>
>
> "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great 
> moral crises maintain their neutrality" - Dante
>
>
>
>
>
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