Quindecim

Issue date: 5/8/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: www.theross.org City Forum kicked off with a showing of the documentary, Boys of Baraka, which follows Baltimore boys as they go to school in Kenya.

Goucher's first annual City Forum, a three-day, campus-wide, student-organized examination of Baltimore, successfully drew attention to the issues that our city currently faces. Based on the events attended by this reporter the weekend of April 13 to 15, it appears that students were able to interact with some of Baltimore city's most passionate activists and to discuss their own actions with their peers. The forum was just one example of the growth of campus activism this year.

Oliver Schwab '07 led a group of about fifteen students through the planning process. Beginning with discussions in the Peace Studies department last year and continuing in the fall, Schwab and Michelle Kurta '08 spearheaded the group of students, each of whom focused on a topic relevant in Baltimore today-education, poverty, homelessness, immigration, environmental health, and justice in the state of Maryland. Kurta explained that City Forum was born out of "a desire to engage more with the city, [although] not in a scholarly way."

Schwab became involved in organizing the forum because he "wanted to provide a space for conversation, to bring Baltimore community leadership onto campus and provide the space for the students to get to know these individuals so that they can organize with them. They can be a part of the conversation."

Josh Cohen '07, President of the Goucher chapter of Amnesty International, explained that the City Forum planners brought many guests to campus because "listening is an essential precursor to doing. The posters say 'what's really going on in Baltimore? Do something.' It's not just 'do something,' it's about how you go about doing," he said. This emphasis on listening was evident as 12 of the 16 planned events featured speakers, contributors and panelists from outside the Goucher community.

Schwab cites Loyola College of Maryland's "Year of the City," an entire academic season devoted to learning more about Baltimore, as an impetus to create the City Forum. "Goucher needs to be part of that conversation," Schwab said. "In the past year, I've watched Goucher students go from being on the fringe to being much more engaged. It's important that Goucher students are involved because we have a history of activism and with the city of Baltimore. Unfortunately, I think we abandoned the city." Schwab feels that the school lost most of its connections to the city beginning in the 1930s, when Goucher began moving from the Guilford community downtown to the present Towson campus.

Continued...

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