[intro music: Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” fades in]
Every September, all incoming Northwestern students go through a week of orientation — called Wildcat Welcome — to familiarize themselves with campus and get adjusted to the basics of college life. But it doesn’t cover everything, especially more political or activism-oriented topics. How will students learn the “things that Northwestern won’t teach?” That is the goal of “Disorientation Week,” a new initiative focusing on teach-ins, conversations, and social activities that highlight on-campus organizing and efforts toward justice.
[music: “A Change Is Gonna Come” fades in, then out]
Student organizers from various campus organizations including but not limited to: Students Organizing for Labor Rights, NU Grad Workers, Reform CAPS, the Undergraduate Prison Education Program, the Jasmine Collective, and the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance collaborated on a week of socially conscious programming from January 21st to 26th. They were inspired by similar events at other colleges, such as the University of Chicago.
I spoke to Jordan Muhammad, one of the organizers of Disorientation Week.
JORDAN MUHAMMAD: I’m a member of Fossil Free Northwestern and we’ve been really interested, especially since last year, in building a coalition with other organizations that are trying to make change on campus… The idea of Disorientation Week is that we all work together on this really cool thing and we just do this thing together, that kind of helps build relationships and helps kind of build coalition and solidarity between participating groups.
The bulk of Disorientation Week planning took place during the first few weeks of winter quarter. The original plan was to host one event per day, but members of participating organizations were so enthusiastic that in the end, nine events took place over the six days. These included documentary movie nights, radical speed-friending, and a teach-in about the history of on-campus activism.
MUHAMMAD: A lot of people liked the Northwestern Movement History one, I really loved that. I really think it’s important for us to know our histories. Like you’ve got to know the systems that you’re trying to change. And I think learning about so many past movements at Northwestern is super inspirational.
On Thursday afternoon, NU Thrift Store hosted a teach-in titled “Fast Fashion is Genocidal.” According to Rachel Lin, one of the co-presidents of NU Thrift, her group wanted to highlight the relationship between sustainability and social justice.
RACHEL LIN: I feel like we tend to fixate on how fast fashion is bad for the environment. But we don’t really talk as much about how it’s bad for humans too. We also don’t talk about how it impacts the environment disproportionately for people of color and the Global South… We don’t talk about it until it affects America.
The teach-in featured a presentation about labor exploitation in the clothing industry, followed by calls to action and a group discussion about how students can think critically about what they consume and adopt more sustainable practices. Though NU Thrift is not traditionally an activist group on campus, Lin sees future opportunities to educate other students.
LIN: We’re trying to make people more aware about how all these issues are interconnected… We have to dismantle these systems together.
Muhammad is a graduating senior, and will pass the baton to new organizers next year.
There have been proposals to make Disorientation Week an annual series of events every fall quarter, when many students, especially freshmen, are still looking for new communities and opportunities on campus. Muhammad says that the week is a flexible concept that can be tailored to the interests of the organizations and organizers involved, having learned from the successes and challenges of this year.
MUHAMMAD: I definitely think people, a lot of people now kind of know about the concept, are kind of interested in it and fingers crossed, if we can make this happen next year, it will be a little more accessible, that kind of name recognition will kind of help drive up participation even more.
Muhammad also emphasizes that much like activism itself, Disorientation Week was very much a collective effort.
MUHAMMAD: Even though it was kind of pulled together last minute, there was still a lot of collaboration that happened. And so I’m excited for that to really be expanded next year.
For WNUR News, I’m Lara Choy.
[exit music: “A Change Is Gonna Come” fade out]
