Myleigh Kilbon

HINESBURG, VT– At the end of my sophomore year, I had a very basic grasp on the concept of social justice, but not enough to talk about it to a group of teachers, who (I assumed) were experts on the topic. So when I was approached by the advisor of the Social Justice Alliance (SJA) to help with inservice presentations before school started, it was fair to say I was a little hesitant. I went to meetings, I did research, I talked with current SJA members, and I learned. I went into these presentations expecting the teachers to correct everything I said, but they listened. This was the day I realized I had the power to make a difference, to make a real change.

From the day we are born, we live in this world of “right” and “wrong”. As we grow, we develop our own innate sense of what it is to be fair and what it is to be unfair. Justice is something that we, as a society, strive for. At CVU, we have worked to put into place systems that ensure that: our students are part of a community where each student has a right to equality; they feel they are a part of a supportive learning environment; systemic change is implemented to uplift marginalized groups; and all students voices are not only heard, but valued.

Just over a year ago, a group of juniors at CVU decided that it was finally time for a concrete change. All of the Social Justice clubs at CVU were in a place where they were respected but not listened to unless it was convenient. CVU’s Environmental Action (EnAct) Club, Bring Change to Mind (mental health) Club, Racial Alliance Committee (RAC), Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA), Students Awareness Change and Training (ACT) for sexual violence, and our Unified Advocacy Club (UAC), came together February of 2020 to form an alliance of social justice related organizations in order to push our agendas and make CVU a more inclusive community.

Our collection of clubs has worked to achieve our goals of students rights, education, and equality. Our broad objectives for this inclusion were;

• Maintain safety, well being, and comfort, 
• Create a comfortable environment so that students can report incidents in confidence that the administration will listen.
• Prevent threats of discrimination, alienation, or persecution
• Construct a place of understanding.
• Ensure that every member of the CVU community is equal.
• Maintain core values of freedom, peace, and justice
• Create a holistically supportive learning environment
• Reform curriculum and increase student education regarding race, identity, sexual violence, bullying, non-neurotypical peers, and general sensitivity.
• Expand education and training for faculty, staff and administrators to ensure problems are dealt with compassionately.
• Develop citizens that contribute positively to their environment and value inclusion.

The sheer number of concrete actions that we have accomplished this year alone has surpassed the actions of all of our individual clubs combined over the past several years. We have worked in the areas of policy to: collaborate with house directors and administration to review existing disciplinary policies and implementation, created pamphlets and resources for students outlining new policy implementation, the implementation of surveys, accessible reporting options, and more. We have worked in the areas of education to: create a race and ethnic studies, and gender studies course, create a social justice credit, and refine existing curriculum to include social justice issues. We have done faculty presentations, student forums, and teacher forums to spread our message. We have created a website and a podcast (The Round Table) as well as creating a more accessible reporting form for students who face injustices.

The Social Justice Alliance has taken this year as an opportunity to work to guarantee all students at CVU have equal rights, status, opportunities, and treatment. The idea of social justice can be a bit daunting at first, I know from experience. But knowing that talking about these issues can make our world even a little bit of a better place, why not take the risk?

Reach out to the CVU Social Justice Alliance for more information about social justice and what social justice looks like in our community.

Social Justice Alliance Website