Students for ERJ

Students for Environmental and Racial Justice (SERJ)
is a student committee focused on Environmental & Racial Justice issues at Stanford.

On March 15th, 2019, over 1.4 million students in excess of 300 cities around the world participated in a global climate strike to protest government inaction on climate change. Now, inspired by our fellow students, Students for Environmental and Racial Justice (SERJ) held a rally a month later, on April 15th. We are a student committee focused on environmental and racial justice issues inspired by this climate strike.

The purpose of the rally was to formally support the Environmental Justice Working Group’s cluster hire petition. In addition, our rally was a demonstration, platform, and campus community space for engaging about environmental justice (EJ) issues, specifically relating to the implications of Stanford University's complicity in environmental and racial injustices, as well as for issues beyond campus.

Our Organizing Principles

Support EJ and RJ awareness, education, and academic opportunities
Act in Solidarity with local and global Indigenous Sovereignty movements
Act in Solidarity with Racial Justice efforts at and beyond Stanford

* Since Spring 2019, we have been updating our organizing principles to be more robust to carry out campaigns and projects in accordance with these principles. They will be finalized in Winter 2020.

Resources

Things that inspire us and the work we do:

Past and Future Events

SSS, Stanford SEEDS, and Black Student Union presented A Broken Place: Black Faces, White Spaces, & Dreaming Green, a May 2019 lecture given by Carolyn Finney, PhD. The event was co-sponsored by Stanford Adventure Program, The Bill Lane Center for the American West, Haas Center, The Program in African & African American Studies, and Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity.

SSS, SERJ, Stanford Roots, and Black Student Union presented Free the Land: Resisting Settler Colonialism through Agroecology and Food Sovereignty, a February 2019 lecture and workshops delivered by Black Earth Farms Collective. The event was cosponsored by Center on Ethics in Society, Center on Food Security and the Environment, and the Center on Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity.

2018 Spring Quarter Demands

Institutionalize EJ through cluster hire of EJ faculty.
Recognize Stanford’s ongoing history of injustices and oppression of the Ohlone and open the conversation about making reparations to them, starting by advocating for Stanford to pay the Shuumi Land tax.
Center environmental and racial justice (ERJ) by cultivating and practicing justice and reparations frameworks in the long-ranging planning implementation, university administrative direction, etc. One potential practice is the establishment of a transparent, reciprocal, and Black; Indigenous; People of Color (BIPOC) student-focused ERJ university policy advisory committee.