{"id":77839,"date":"2024-02-28T09:04:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T15:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=77839"},"modified":"2024-02-28T09:04:58","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T15:04:58","slug":"students-form-chapter-for-reproductive-and-gender-equity-on-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=77839","title":{"rendered":"Students form chapter for reproductive and gender equity on campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By ALICIA FEYERHERM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This semester, a new club has joined the list of over 200 student organizations recognized by Student Engagement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students United for Reproductive and Gender Equity (SURGE) is a club for students passionate about protecting reproductive and gender rights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are an abortion-positive group that addresses how intersectionality influences healthcare, state and local policies,\u201d Founder Drew Legere said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to faculty advisor Hollie Marquess, FHSU now joins six other Kansas universities with SURGE chapters: Bethel College, Johnson County Community College, University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Washburn University and Wichita State University.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legere approached Marquess about being the faculty advisor for the club and Marquess agreed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs faculty, part of my job is to support and foster the leadership of young people and I was happy to fill this role that would let Drew shine in this way,\u201d Marquess said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marquess said the organization also benefits the campus as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is important to have a chapter on our campus that gives our young people this leadership opportunity and experience in advocating for meaningful policy change,\u201d Marquess said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Student Alisha Brantley joined the organization so she could have those opportunities to advocate and engage with other students.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wanted to get more involved, specifically in Women\u2019s and Gender Rights, but our campus didn\u2019t really have a group or safe space to discuss those kinds of topics,\u201d Brantley said. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the women, LGBTQ+ members, POC, and other allies on our campus to know that there is a safe space to express their thoughts and voice their concerns, especially living in a community that is viewed as more conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of the club\u2019s short-term projects will include tabling at the union about safe sex practices, designing posters about abortion access and listening to lectures on sexuality and reproductive health.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The club will also watch \u201cCall Jane,\u201d a movie about activists in the 1960s and 70s who provided underground abortions, and discuss the movie as a group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More long-term plans include larger-scale advocacy events. For example, as a whole, SURGE is working to remove the luxury tax on period products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legere recognizes that forming clubs takes time and this first semester will mostly focus on recruiting members and getting established. Brantley is excited to see where things go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is a wonderful thing to know that there is a new, blossoming community here to support us,\u201d Brantley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those interested in joining SURGE can sign up on Tigerlink. SURGE meets every other Monday at 6:00 p.m. in Forsyth Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By ALICIA FEYERHERM Tiger Media Network This semester, a new club has joined the list of over 200 student organizations recognized by Student Engagement.&nbsp; Students&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":77840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3398,11],"tags":[14480,15621,15620],"class_list":["post-77839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-alicia-feyerherm","tag-students-united-for-reproductive-and-gender-equity","tag-surge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Image_20240222_135803_481.png?fit=500%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77841,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77839\/revisions\/77841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}