Due to the nature of student life and changing members, some Working Groups are “put on the shelf” as their organizers convocate while they wait for other students to revive them. If you are interested in rejuvenating one of the following groups, let us know!
The Students’ Initiative to Change On-Campus Systemic Racism
Our Mandate and Goals
The aim of this movement is to ensure students at the University of Regina all have a positive experience by integrating Aboriginal education into every degree, diploma and certificate program.
- Harmonizing the relationship between Non-Aboriginals and Aboriginals
- Making Indigenous Students a requirement to graduate
- Enforcing decolonization and Treaty education
This group is an advocate for anti-racism through education, but will also hold different types of events. There is room to showcase what Aboriginal people have to offer, and they have a good way of combining traditional with contemporary entertainment. This working group believes that displaying talents and traditional ways of life are visual aids to learn about Aboriginal culture in a contemporary context, opposed to historical.
Books Through Bars
Our Mandate and Goals
Our mandate is to support prisoners by sending them books for free. Our goals are to successfully solicit donations of books from the Regina community, to build productive relationships with jail and prison libraries in the province by stocking them with reading material for prisoners, and to increase the number of active members of the group so that we can eventually begin to solicit requests from individual prisoners for specific books.
We have a three-tiered action plan: First, to let people know about the Books Through Bars project and to build alliances outside prison walls by soliciting donations of books and publicizing the group as widely as possible. Second, to deliver quality books to jail and prison libraries, thereby building alliances inside prison walls. And third, to research the relevant issues and share that research with our communities through articles, educational events, and fundraisers.
Change
Our Mandate and Goals
CHANGE is a group that aims to empower school students to take preventative actions against issues such as: racism, bullying, and homophobia, along with health and addiction related issues and personal safety. CHANGE also aims to empower students to advocate for appropriate curriculum changes regarding these issues. To achieve this mandate, CHANGE aims to: hear the problems students face today in their social circles, and to give students a chance to take leadership roles in prenvetive actions.
CHANGE is a group that listens to students about their problems, such as bullying, racism and homophobia, and then helps them to build their own preventive programs to assist in dealing with these issues. These programs may include workshops for their fellow students/parents/teachers, requests to incorporate certain discussions, texts, movies into the curriculum at their school, drama, inviting speakers, starting discussion clubs etc. We want to engage students, parents and teachers, where students have the leading role in creating change – we believe that through working with the whole community we can stop violence, misinformation, and ignorance. Giving the leadership and guidance to young people we hope to start a whole new socially-aware generation of Reginians.
Cinema Politica
Our Mandate and Goals
To provide a regular audio/visual venue for films and documentaries with the intent of initiating discussion and dialogue about social, economic and ecological issues within a local context, giving individuals and groups a venue for action. As well, to encourage local filmmaking and the formation of further working groups and community organizations based on the themes of the films.
CINEMA POLITICA (CP) is a Montreal-based media arts, non-profit network of community and campus locals that screen independent political film and video by Canadian and international artists throughout Canada and abroad. CP is volunteer-run and all screenings are by donation. CP programs films that challenge conventional fiction and documentary narratives, as well as films that explore under-represented stories and characters.
Cinema Politica is now operating at the Artful Dodger in Regina.
People Before Profit
Our Mandate and Goals
Our mandate is to empower communities through women: locally, nationally, and internationally. Our short and long term goals include educational events, student involvement in activism, raising awareness of local, national, and global social issues, continuous advertisement, and purchase and sale of fair trade products.
Through fundraising, we support marginalized groups while standing in solidarity with them. Our goal is to help these communities prosper by providing them with funds. We believe that way they can use the funds to address the issues in their community or to invest in education, training, etc. The community projects are periodically selected based on need and urgency. We also find it important to educate our community about human rights and the issues around the world. By empowering women, we are helping them to empower their community.
Regina Food Fight
Our Mandate and Goals
Formed in September 2009, Food Fight is a U of R student group that organizes around food issues as they relate to social and environmental justice. With a focus on both local and international issues, Food Fight aims to raise awareness and create change towards a food system that is more equitable and sustainable, both environmentally and socially. This includes the objectives of food sovereignty, supporting local initiatives, and healthy alternatives. Although a very young group, Food Fight has been very active on campus through tabling and hosts a lively Facebook group.
Our current campaign is to remove Coca-Cola and its associated products from the U of R campus and replace them with a more socially just alternative as a reaction to the human rights violations committed by the corporation. We have already acquired 516 student signatures in support of this initiative. As a result of the Coca Cola campaign, questions about bottled water on campus have been raised by the group and we hope this continues to evolve. We are also planning to host Pachamama Alliance: Awaken the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium, which draws on the connections between the environment, social justice, and personal wellbeing, and we plan on having a few smaller events leading up to it.
University of Regina Environmental Club
Our Mandate and Goals
The Environmental Club at the University of Regina believes that education is the best way to initiate change within the U of R student body.
We work to understand the environmental systems around us, including land, water, and air. This gives us a unique opportunity to appreciate the importance of these systems, and believe that if we can educate students to understand the importance of these systems, we can induce positive environmental action within individuals, the community, and the world.
Secondary School Public Interest Research Group (SSPIRG)
Our Mandate and Goals
The Secondary School Public Interest Research Group (SSPIRG) is a group of educators that are interested in fostering PIRG’s at a high school level. The working group will involve post-interns (U of R students in their final semester of Education with direct/personal ties to a high school). These connections will allow the groups to find immediate success in setting up several PIRG’s.
Secondary students become passionate and empowered when given the opportunity to research and act on their own ideas. High school students should also be encouraged to critically think about societal ideas and learn to question the status quo. By setting up PIRG’s in high schools, students get the chance to act on their beliefs, and educate their peers about important issues that are felt both locally and beyond.
