THE General Body, a coalition of student organizations, will host a “Teach In to Act Out” event this weekend on topics relating to student activism.

The teach-in, which will be held on Friday and Saturday at the Community Folk Art Center, located at 805 E. Genesee St., is composed of a series of students and faculty panel discussions, guest speakers, workshops and performances.

THE General Body staged an 18-day sit-in in Crouse-Hinds Hall in November 2014 to protest the lack of transparency at SU, among other topics listed in the group’s 45-page list of grievances and demands. After the group of protesters left Crouse-Hinds on Nov. 20, organizers of the movement looked to increase its campus presence as it moved into “Phase Two.”

The event will focus on themes such as history of past and current student movements, ties between corporations and universities and the role of art in student movements, according to THE General Body’s website.

Yanira Rodriguez, one of the lead organizers of the teach-in and a first year Ph.D. candidate in the composition and cultural rhetoric doctoral program at Syracuse University, said the event is education-oriented.

“The teach-in is, in a way, meant to contest a lack of space that students and faculty have to come together to have important conversations that need to take place,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said the teach-in was planned because there are still discussions that need to take place to address issues. She said the teach-in is a way of letting the university know that THE General Body will continue to focus on the issues it brought up at the sit-in in November.

About 300 people are expected to attend the event, based on the number of participants from past rallies, Rodriguez said. She added that the event will open up the opportunity for all students to come and listen about the issues and to form their opinions.

Events for the teach-in begin on 8 a.m. Friday and end at 5:30 p.m., according to THE General Body’s website. Colton Jones, a senior psychology major who is a member of THE General Body, said he is excited for the event.

“I think what is beautiful is that we are now able to take the space that we created in Crouse-Hinds and open up to the general public so that they can too learn about these things that are important and prevalent in our lives today,” Jones said.

“We are having the teach-in at the space in the first place in an effort to increase transparency to demystify this idea that these are the issues that only affected the group who are protesting but these issues are really affecting the entire campus,” Rodriguez said.

Margo Okazawa-Rey, a scheduled keynote speaker at the teach-in and the Root Peace Fund Chair in Women’s Studies at Hamilton College, said she would deliver a speech highlighting the importance of networking among activists.

She said she will be talking about the need for everyone to be connected as activists, as intellectuals and as people who are concerned about the issues that will be discussed, adding that the issues surrounding SU are a universal problem.

“It is not an isolated incident,” Okazawa-Rey said. “This is a whole kind of national, and in some places, international trend that says certain things about the role of universities in the wider society.”

Published on January 29, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Satoshi: ssugiyam@syr.edu | @SatoshiJournal