We’re all immigrants here, as the saying goes. An oft-forgotten fact of history, however, tends to disagree with that saying as not everyone who came to America did so by choice. Some were brought as chattel, while others were indigenous peoples decimated by the so-called “immigrant.” The Immigration Through The Lens of Black History event on Nov. 28th included lunch (courtesy of President Matos) and discussion concerning the ways immigration is complicated by black history. Guests were provided a timeline of immigration laws, along with a timeline of black history in the United States, and used these timelines to understand how American policies affected not only immigrants, but black…
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Participatory budgeting begins at Queens College
Participatory budgeting first began in 1989 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Citizens voted on projects proposed by other residents. Projects with the most votes received funding. Since then, the practice was exported across the world from Spain to the United States. Starting this semester, participatory budgeting will begin at Queens College after students requested it. Participatory budgeting is democratic as a community creates ideas as projects. It chooses popular ideas and enacts it with available resources. Melissa Appleton, project manager at the Participatory Budgeting Project, said the organization she is with would help the process if any questions come up. “Participatory Budgeting Process is pleased to provide technical assistance to Participatory…
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Participatory budgeting may come to Queens College
Queens College students may soon decide how to spend part of student government’s budget through participatory budgeting. But what is participatory budgeting? “Basically, it’s a direct democratic process with assemblies that diagnose problems, identify problems [and] come up with proposals that address them,” Alexander Kolokotronis, a senior and member of Students Organization for Democratic Alternatives, said. “Eventually, they decide which of the proposals they want to move forward with; so you implement and monitor them.” Participatory budgeting began in 1989 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where citizens voted on projects proposed by other residents. Since then, it expanded to other cities throughout the world. SODA, founded in April 2014, brought up the issue of participatory budgeting…
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Legacy of student activism lives on at Queens College
Queens College is famous for the roles student activists played not only on campus, but across the U.S. as well. From anti-war rallies to mass sit-ins at buildings, students helped define and change what it means to be an activist over the history of the college. Today activism is still a major part of student life on campus in spite of new issues appearing in society. “Activism is a way to create change through people’s actions. It is creating awareness in the community in order to cause people to take action and demand better political change.” Lorena Carino, senior, said. Carino is a member of the DREAM Team, which aims…
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Students walk to pressure CUNY over fossil fuel divestment
CUNY Divest, a student-led group advocating for fossil fuel divestment, held a series of walks to all 24 CUNY campuses urging the board of trustees to divest. The CUNY Climate Walk, held from Aug. 21 to 24, originated from a walk of Navajo women earlier this year. The walk, called “Nihígaal Bee Iiná” or “Our Journey for Existence,” mostly focused on the impacts of fossil fuel extraction on the Navajo community in Dinétah, located in southwestern U.S. Darsen Hover, a member of CUNY Divest, said the public reacted positively toward the walk, which already added to support the organization received since its inception during spring 2013. “We had very positive feedback from the people…
