SJF Grants now available

The Tufts Progressive Alumni Network announces a February 15th deadline for applications to its Social Justice Fund. The Social Justice Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects, or community organizing, with a focus on projects that have an impact both on the Tufts campus and on a larger scale.

Please note that due to shrinking funds, the SJF committee has tightened the number of grants we may give. At the same time, we seek to be more transparent about our grant-making criteria and have posted them on our website. Please visit http://www.tuftsprogressives.org/serv01.htm.

Any further questions should be sent to Cindy Chang, LA'03 at cindy@tuftsprogressives.org.

Support the Social Justice Fund

Dear Friends,

The Social Justice Fund is an important supporter of Tufts campus activism. Since its inception it has funded many of the campaigns and projects that trained us as social justice activists and made us who we are today.

The Social Justice Fund has existed in various capacities for almost ten years. Over the past few years, it has achieved renewed successes, supporting numerous amazing projects. In 2007 alone, the committee granted almost $5,500 for social justice activism at Tufts

With the Fund’s help, Tufts student activists have recently:

- Campaigned for Tufts janitors, the cause for which the Fund was started.
- Completed a video archive of queer history at Tufts from 1969 to the present.
- Brought the “AIDS Quilt” to Tufts and raised awareness about the global AIDS pandemic.
- Built a mock refugee camp on the Quad to raise awareness of refugee rights.
- Campaigned to reduce consumption of bottled water on campus.
- Organized a “Hip Hop for Social Change” festival.

But our pool of money is shrinking! At the current rate of disbursement, the fund will cease existing within the next two years.

That is why we need your help. As Tufts progressive alumni we ask for your
assistance in keeping social justice alive on the Hill.

Contributing to the Fund is easy, and can be achieved in a number of ways. Please see the end of this email for complete instructions.
With your help, we can keep this valuable institution going, so that future activists can inspire Tufts and the larger world to be the places we know they can be.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Yours in peace and solidarity,
Cindy Chang
Mara D’Angelo
Gary Goldstein
Douglass Hansen
Rachel Jones
Eva Skillicorn

Mission: The Social Justice Fund supports social justice causes where there is a critical lack of funding through traditional University channels. The Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects or community organizing, with a focus on projects that impact the Tufts campus, the larger community and the applicant.

Click here for more information on recipients and the fund.

It’s easy to give to the Social Justice Fund!

Option 1: Give online via credit card. Enter your personal information to The Man. Be sure to designate your gift by writing “Social Justice Fund” in the Gift Designation 3 box.

Option 2: Give through the mail via check. Send a check to Tufts University, P.O. Box 3306, Boston, MA 02241-3306. Be sure to designate your gift by writing “Social Justice Fund” in the memo line.

Option 3: Give through Cindy Chang, administrator of the Social Justice Fund, via check and she will write her own personal check to Tufts of an equal amount. Keep your personal info from Tufts while she gets all the junk mail. Contact her at cindy@tuftsprogressives.org.

THANK YOU for your support!

Disclaimer: For those of us who have objected to donating to the University in the past, please know that while contributions to the Fund are kept with the University’s endowment, our reserves and interest received are for the exclusive use of the Social Justice Fund. We are otherwise completely independent from the University.

Mission: The Social Justice Fund supports social justice causes where there is a critical lack of funding through traditional University channels. The Fund provides grants of $100-$900 for campus activism, social justice projects or community organizing, with a focus on projects that impact the Tufts campus, the larger community and the applicant.

For more information on recipients and the fund, please visit http://www.tuftsprogressives.org/serv01.htm

Alumni suggest community and social change for TCU

Here are the seven responses from the survey last week. All are from alumni:

Supporting groups that encourage community involvement-- particularly organizing and activism in ways that help to strengthen the local communities of which Tufts plays a part!

I think some of the money should go to groups that facilitate funding for social change and service projects for students such as the Social Justice Fund.

Endow scholarships to bring students to Tufts who would otherwise be rejected because of need.

Support for Group of Six and related student groups and activities. More funding for arts and culture group.

Donate the money to the Social Justice Fund, to support progressive activism on campus.

Provide former OSA employees with retroactive raises and benefits which were withheld.

I think they should set up an Activist Center to provide institutional support for activism and active citizenship on campus.

Social Justice Fund Announces Spring Grantees

The Social Justice Fund is proud to announce the grantees from its spring application round. We are proud to support the work of these students and student groups in their quest for social justice at Tufts and beyond.

• Tessa Henry and the Emerging Black Leaders for support of the Emerging Black Leaders Symposium. Find out more at http://www.tuftsebls.org/site/ ($500)
• Erin Baldassari and the Synaptic Scholars for support of the Tufts Hip Hop for Social Change Festival ($500)
• John Chiosi and the Tufts chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility - for their display and awareness campaign around the AIDS Quilt ($660)
• Morissa Sobelson - for her summer research on the Community Health movement in Boston ($700)
• Emma Mayerson and the Jumbo Janitor's Alliance - for Dorm Clean-up events. Read about the Jumbo Janitors Alliance in the Tufts Daily.

Social Justice Fund - deadline extended

The Social Justice Fund committee has decided to extend the deadline for current applications. Applications are now due February 22, 2008. Please forward widely.

Thank you,
Cindy Chang LA '03
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Tufts Progressive Alumni Network is taking submissions for Social Justice Funds. Grants of $100 - $900 for campus activism, social justice projects, or community organizing are available. The deadline has been extended to Feb 22, 2008.

Please note that we are no longer funding expenses associated with travels. For complete details, visit tuftsprogressives.org or email cindy@tuftsprogressives.org

Social Justice Fund fall grantees

The Social Justice Fund was pleased to be able to support three student groups through our fall funding cycle.

$655 Education Action! group to support a panel on No Child Left Behind Act. Read more

$472 Jennifer Bailey and the Social Justice Arts Initiative to support their Guerrilla Theater Event and Hurricane Katrina fundraiser. You can read about their events here and here.

$200 Lizzie DeWan and the Think Outside the Bottle Campaign to hold the World Water Challenge this past November 5th.


We continue to encourage social justice activism on the Tufts campus through grants throughout the year. Any questions, please contact sjf@tuftsprogressives.org

Social Justice Funds Available

Attention Current Students:

Tufts Progressive Alumni Network is taking submissions for Social Justice Funds. Grants of $100 - $900 for campus activism, social justice projects, or community organizing are available. Submission deadline is Oct 15th. Visit tuftsprogressives.org for details, or email cindy@tuftsprogressives.org.

What our Social Justice Fund grantees are doing this summer

In our last round for the Spring Semester, the Social Justice Fund committee awarded $2,550 to three out of eleven applicants. We feel that these students best exemplified the Social Justice Fund's mission to support student activists on the Tufts campus and beyond. In a belated update, here's what these three are doing over the summer:

* Adam Levy is researching the effects of global migration, traveling to both Mexico and Nepal to interview and volunteer in refugee communities. Upon his return he will create a photo essay of his experience that will be used in a series of teach-ins in Boston public schools throughout the fall.
* Elena Mead is finishing up the last of her videos for the Tufts Queer History Project, an attempt to document queer history and activism on campus. Learn more about her project at http://ase.tufts.edu/lgbt/tqhp/index.html. If you were part of the sit-in at Bendetson, don't forget to email her to be filmed for that video segment! Elena.mead@tufts.edu
* Kelsi Stine will be traveling to Ghana for the summer and volunteering at a Liberian refugee camp. Part of our grant goes to pay for new sewing machines for women's skill training center. Upon her return, Kelsi will be speaking with a number of classes and student groups about the grassroots reconciliation process.

Our next SJF deadline is October 15th. Contact sjf@tuftsprogressives.org with any questions.

Request for TSAD sit-in participants

Below is a request for those who participated in the TSAD sit-in at Bendetson Hall. The Social Justice Fund is funding Elena to finish the series of videos for the Tufts Queer History Project, so please help if you can! You can contact Elena directly at Elena.Mead@tufts.edu.

-----------
Hello,
I would like to send a thank you for giving me funding for TQHP this
summer. I have been researching the movie,
and was interested in knowing if any of your members were involved in
the Tufts Christian Fellowship incident and
the Bendetson Sit-in in November 2000. If you have any questions
please email me. I am looking for those who
want to participate in the film and share their story.

Please also look at the site for information on the TCF debate and sit in:
http://ase.tufts.edu/lgbt/tqhp/timeline.html

Best,
Elena