Environmental Activism 101
The
University of Montana will train activists as well as scholars
during a new 16-week joint venture with the federally funded Green
Corps. Called the Environmental Organizing Semester, it will teach
26 college juniors and seniors from around the country how to run
petition drives, investigate environmental abuses, write press
releases and, of course, fund raise. The field work will be done in
teams, because “group work is the most overlooked civic skill,”
says director C.B. Pearson. Environmmental leaders such as
Greenpeace’s Barbara Dudley and Doug Phelps of the Public Interest
Research Group will describe how they run their campaigns. Pearson
finds the curriculum “touches a nerve with the more idealistic
students everywhere, not just those drawn to Missoula, Mont.” The
Environmental Organizing Semester begins January 1996 with
applications due Nov. 17. For more information, contact C.B.
Pearson, at Rankin Hall, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812
(406/243-6185).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Environmental Activism 101.
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