By Daisy Hassani
Gargoyle assistant editor
Posted Thursday, April 20, 2006, The OG, features

Senioritis. It's a horrible thing, but it hasn't affected the ambitious students of Suzanne Linder's Social Advocacy II class. These students have made impressive headway with their class projects this year. Usually the class chooses one topic that addresses current issues. But due to the large class size this year, the students chose two: military recruiting in high schools and sweatshop labor.

Each group is developing a documentary, capturing what they learned while investigating the topic at hand. The class will screen both films on May 19 in Uni's North Attic.

The “Warr” group, consisting of seniors Lucy Schiller, Annie Fehrenbacher, Mo Kudeki, Leah Imlay, Rebecca Alper, and Colette DeJong, is delving into the controversy of military recruiting in high schools. The group has interviewed local high school students and recruitment officers to create an in-depth look at the issues surrounding military recruiting.

According to DeJong, working on the project helped to open the group's eyes to the fact that high school military recruitment is not a black and white issue.

“The Warr group wasn't sure what to expect going into our documentary,” said DeJong. “We're realizing more and more that going in, we were expecting to say military recruiting is terrible, because that seems like a common leaning at Uni. In fact, we're finding that the issue is a pretty complex one, and it's closed-minded to disregard recruiting as generally unethical and evil without knowing the facts.”

Discovering both sides of the issue, DeJong came to the conclusion that an informed decision is the best.

“My take is, we want to suggest to the Uni community that it's OK to oppose recruiting, but not without at least considering these other views,” she said. “It's exciting — we don't know exactly what our own opinion is, but we'll hopefully open up discussion on a topic that's written-off in the Uni circle.”

The sweatshop labor group, consisting of seniors Josie Chambers, Julie Chen, Ben Erickson, Roveiza Irfan, Alex Johnson, Rose Kory, and Cordelia Loots-Gollin and juniors Mandy Grill and Marquis Wang, is making a spoof of the TV show “What Not To Wear,” with an intriguing twist. They decided to go through Grill's closet to analyze her fashion sense. But their quest through Grill's wardrobe is not from an haute-couture perspective.

“The idea is to look at her wardrobe and explain how to get the style she wants without benefiting sweatshops,” said Irfan.

The team will provide alternatives to purchasing brand-name clothing. One possibility is to buy clothes second hand, limiting the direct benefits to the brand. Another is to make your own clothes.

Only half the sweatshop labor group is working on the film. The other half is creating a 16-page consumer-guide brochure. The point of the brochure will be to examine big-name clothing companies such as Gap, Limited, and Nike to find out about their backgrounds and their plans regarding sweatshop labor.

“We're trying to say that since teens won't stop buying clothes, at least they can know which companies are better,” said Irfan. The brochure will be available in local libraries (both public and high school) and at the Social Advocacy film premiere.

Linder's role in the projects has been limited to that of an adviser to both groups. She mainly helps with time management and logistics, said DeJong.

With Linder pretty much out of the picture when it comes to the hardcore working part of the project, there is a lot of responsibility on the team members' shoulders.

“It's challenging because ‘with great power comes great responsibility,' ” said DeJong. “But it's also exciting and rewarding, especially when things go well!”