Skip to main content

Posts

Project Reflection

 The issue we wanted to address with our project is the lack of condensed, concise resources for reporting sexual harassment in Illinois. Sure, there are reports and papers that exist, but many times they are quite exhaustive and occasionally convoluted in nature. Our intention was to create something that would be useful for somebody who is a victim of harassment or assault, and wants to know how to proceed. Overall, our project went well, and I think we did a good job at untangling some of the messier legal definitions and breaking them down into more concise language. Our main challenge was actually that of communication: We needed approval from the SSO to distribute our material, and they didn't get back to us in time for the last project day. However, I do hope that when the project does eventually get distributed, that it does serve as a helpful resource for some people who want to know their rights in certain institutions. If we had the chance to do this project again, I wou...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

Reflection on volunteer work

 As we've done our various bits of community service and volunteering, I've started to realize a lot of things about community service in general that I never really pieced together. First of all, it's not very hard, especially if you're in a group. We're something like 6, 7 people, but we still managed to clean up an entire park pretty well, and finish a lot of tasks at the food pantry, both in under 2 hours. One would think that something so simple, easy to accomplish, and rewarding to both the community and the individual would be something that's a lot more common in adult society. However, according to a nonprofit organization website, only about 25% of Americans volunteer their time to community service, and that includes people who are doing it as a court sentence. Even though it's such a simple request, and something that can be a big help even when done in small quantities, the turnout is still quite low. I think that the reason people don't per...
4 comments
Read more

Hostile Architecture

 Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the concept of hostile architecture and what it says about the priorities of the community and society as a whole. For those uninformed, hostile architecture is a type of urban design that uses decorative or environmental elements to restrict behavior. In this example from Canada, steel maple leaf decor is used as a way to prevent skateboard grinding. Of course, this is a relatively tame thing to attempt to dissuade, although it is still kind of a jerk move. However, there are other aspects that are less passive. These "decorative" fences were actually put up as an attempt to stop street vendors, with seemingly no regard for how obtrusive something like this would be for everyone else, not including how it's almost illegal considering you need to have a certain amount of space open on a sidewalk for the wheelchair-bound to pass through safely.     I'm sure everyone saw this coming, but a very common target of hostile archite...
2 comments
Read more

Social Justice: Twisting the meaning

 The terminology of social justice has been a hot topic for a while, at least since the past decade. Some people are heavy supporters of the social justice movement, while others are both unsupportive and outright mocking of both the movement and the followers of it. While this is not a new concept, it's worth taking a deeper look at the meaning of social justice, both linguistically and politically, to find out why it's such a polarizing topic for many people.     First, let's think of the meaning behind social justice. According to the Oxford dictionary, social justice is "j ustice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society". In terms of the rights being fought for, this doesn't sound like anything too bad; wealth, opportunities, and privileges. But the key factor in this definition, and the thing that is most heavily debated, is the definition of justice. In almost all dictionaries found online, the definition of ...
3 comments
Read more