This Wednesday night, I thought I was going to die.
I had three meetings back to back from 8pm to 1am.
I didn't do my work and three midterms were waiting to attack.

So when I dragged myself to the Broadway Sky Lounge for the "Campus Climate Workshop," I realized that I would rather be doing my work in my room and wearing my pj's. And it was that moment, that I asked myself: Do you think this is going to go anywhere? What can possibly be done?

To be honest, at that point I thought the meeting was going to just be another meeting. And to be honest, I did not want to talk and talk and talk about how this campus is a breeding ground for words of racism and actions of injustice.

But, I am glad that I stayed because plans were made--plans to act upon.

At first, the meeting was frustrating because on top of the fact that everyone was stressed, everyone who attended were coming from different backgrounds with their own reason, understanding, and main objective for being at the meeting. Moreover, most of the students were skeptical about what the meeting would achieve. Nonetheless after talking and talking again, we came to a common consensus: There are things happening on campus that need immediate response of solidarity from students (whether it is support from BSO to MSA or each student as an individual).

So around 10.30pm we ended up moving from talking to listing demands and from listing demands to physical actions.

1. We prioritized demands by how urgent each issue/deadline is.
2. Right now on campus there acts of direct injustice and events promoting ideas rooted in racism hitting the students one after another. Many of these problems/situations are framed within a very specific amount of time. While student activism cannot be constrained to mobilization that is just reactionary to specific outbreaks or issues; we (as those who attended the meeting) decided that we need to build solidarity as soon as possible and to stand together on the issues that are coming up according to different frames of time (a week, a month, a semester). These are the BIG BIG issues (not all of them) that we need to join together as a community of students...

a. IN THE UPCOMING WEEK: Protest the Islamo-Fascism week. Get educated on what Islamo-Fascism really is... and if you think this is okay? Because there are some evident problems with what Islamo-Fascism is advocating.

b. In the next month: Support SPEAK in stopping Columbia's expansion. Their deadline is coming up soon. If you don't know enough about this or gentrification, use wiki or any other form of media to educate yourself.

c. By the end of this semester: 1) Outreach for ethnic studies. 2) Find ways to foster solidarity on campus during all times.

Although these seem goals may seem really narrow and reactionary, the truth is other organizations need support in their fight against marginalization and injustice...RIGHT NOW.

The most immediate case is the one in the up coming week regarding Islamo-Fascism.

So what did we do? The meeting came up with a flyering campaign that will be shared throughout various organizations on campus. Basically the flyer says: "NOT ON OUR CAMPUS". And various organizations will be flyering constantly.... PLASTERING THE CAMPUS. We will just be changing the "topic" of what we don't want on campus (ex: Islamo-Fascism, gentrification, etc).

Look out and keep posted for the demands of the students expressed on these flyers.

Solidarity can only be achieved when we start to empathize with everyone's struggles. True mobilization can never occur when all you care about is yourself. Let's show our support.

I hope that this meeting will manifest itself into action.
I hope that even simple flyers can help bring our campus together.
I have faith that we will not let ourselves down.