2008 Woodie Awards
Activism meets apathy despite naked protest
David Abbott, News Editor
Issue date: 12/7/05 Section: News
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"This is something that needs to be discussed, and this is a way of getting it out in the open," Stitham said, as he waved a home-made sign that stated, "Don't give them your body."
Stitham and fellow protestor Bob Young shouted out phrases such as "Take money away from the army and give it to someone else," and "find other things to do with your body than give it to them."
Overall, there wasn't much interest in the protest, a reflection of student political apathy. Most passersby averted their eyes as they passed Stitham although a few took pictures with their cell phones.
Kinesiology student Micah Mendez disagreed with Stitham's protest, and thinks it's a good thing recruiters have access to school campuses.
"They can protest because of the sacrifices made by our men in uniform," he said. Mendez is a veteran of the Coast Guard attending college on the GI Bill.
Rae Abileah, who coordinated activities for CODEPINK, thinks that most recruiters face pressure to make quotas, so they often make dishonest claims to get young people to sign up.
"People need to know that once they sign a contract, anything the recruiter told them is null and void," she said. "Any promises made in the recruiting office can be broken without a chance for legal recourse."
One week earlier when Marine recruiters appeared on campus, a small handful of students, staff, and faculty held an impromptu protest.
Sociology student Michelle Salvail was at the Nov. 10 protest. "They shouldn't be allowed if they're not welcomed or invited," Salvail said. "I think their recruiting methods are unethical."
Laurel Hölmstrom, an administrative analyst from the office of the Academic Senate read the Senate's official position regarding recruiters on campus aloud, "so that they knew exactly where we stand on the issue."
The resolution, approved on March 12, 1998, reflects the Senate's disapproval of the military's stance on individuals' sexual orientation and states that, "This Senate hereby notifies US military recruiters that, notwithstanding the legal right which they have...to (access) Sonoma State students, they should have no illusion that they are welcome on this campus as long as they continue to practice blatant discrimination against members of the community."