Flyers sporting giant gorillas will soon cover campus, advertising the new Global Trade Justice Club started by a handful of students this semester to raise awareness on trade policy, according to club member Kara Newhouse.
"We were talking about how we wanted to do guerilla action," Newhouse, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said. "The gorilla just became our mascot."
Pointing to how trade is often overlooked as a political issue, students started the club to teach the school community the full impact of trade policy, according to Andrew Wolf, one of the club's creators and a sophomore in the School of International Service.
The trade policy movement had died down after Sept. 11, but recently there had been renewed interest in the issue, said Wolf.
"People wanted to get working on the issue again," he said. "We needed an entity to work on trade justice."
Trade is a bigger issue than most people realize, Wolf said.
"It's really pertinent," he said. "Trade policy is the main way countries work together."
Alex Piletic, another club member and a freshman in CAS, said the club addresses real, permanent trade issues.
"Trade justice is not just some stupid hippy movement," she said.
Meeting in the Kay Spiritual Center basement Thursday nights, the group is currently working on increasing visibility and student involvement by coordinating the efforts of many student clubs.
"Everywhere people turn, trade should be an issue," Wolf said. "Because even students who deal with the world every day don't see it as that big of a problem."
A hot chocolate sale put on by a related club last semester is an example of how the group plans to raise awareness, Newhouse said.
To illustrate the impact of farm subsidies on farmers in the developing world, the group sold two sets of hot chocolate on the quad, one for 25 cents a cup, the other for $1 a cup.
"It was a really energetic way to get people aware," Newhouse said.
In addition to increasing visibility, the group's main mission for this semester is educating students about the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill, passed every five years in Congress, deals with a wide range of food policies, from farm subsidies to food stamps.
"It's extremely relevant right now," Asha Tamarisa, a freshmen in SIS and a club member, said. The club also said it hopes to educate students on the bill's impact on international and domestic farmers.
Besides being interested in trade issues, members said they appreciated the club's emphasis on learning from one another.
"I like the comfort level," Newhouse said. "We're really open to all kinds of ideas, even if people just want to learn."
Wolf said learning more about trade issues is the ultimate goal of the club.
"At the end of the semester, everyone will have learned something from each other," he said.
