Carnegie Mellon University - Thistle Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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While a student checks the schedule of planned SAA activities, graduate student Ovid Jacobs takes a turn silting at the shanty. A simple explanation of the shanty's purpose is displayed on its wall. Proudly displaying the mutual agreement between SAA members and the Administration concerning the shanty and SAA activities is Associate Dean of Student Affairs Lois Cox. A game of hackey-sack helps Rollie Wesen, Diane Echlin. and John Dowd to pass the time away. STUDENT ACTIVISM ON CAMPUS STUDENTS PUSH FOR DIVESTMENT BY Omni Hautnv BUILDING SHANTY The construction of a shanty on the Cut to protest South Africa’s racist policies and Carnegie Mellon’s financial interests there demonstrate an increase in student activism at Carnegie Mellon. Members of Students Against Apartheid (SAA) built the shanty as a symbol of the conditions in which South African blacks are forced to live.” said SAA President Greg Staresenic. The shanty was a way to have a constant presence on campus that shows the problems in South Africa. A lot of people on campus have no knowledge of what’s going on there. We brought it to their attention, and kept it in their attention, ” he explained. The shanty was erected on October 31, one and a half weeks before a meeting of the Carnegie Mellon Board of Trustees. Staresenic said that another purpose of the shanty was as a statement to the Administration that we’re looking for divestment” of the school’s holding in South African companies. Staresenic said that more than 30 students were directly involved with the shanty—building it. attending forums or poetry readings there, or living in it over the 24 days that it re- much anywhere with divestment, ad-‘although a committee of Trustees, stu-has been appointed to look into the issue Carnegie Mellon’s role should be. But it issue on people’s minds, he said with walk by without noticing it; people Reactions were mixed—positive and nega-were thinking about it. ” addition to the SAA. that have been few years that suggest a push toward stu-the Democratic Socialists of America, the d The Student Union newspaper. Layout by—Sara Rad Copy by—Natalie Capone Innovations 9

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