Civil Liberties Union to
meet
By Heather Mangold
City
Editor
For the first time, college chapters of the Indiana
Civil Liberties Union will join to organize and network with one another.
During a youth conference on Saturday, members
of Purdue’s chapter of the union will join other college campuses
in Indianapolis. Joe Holtrop, president of the Purdue chapter of the
union, said he is looking forward to the opportunity because it will
give him a chance to meet and exchange ideas with other college students
involved in the organization.
"We would like to provide a platform so we
can all work for the same things," said Holtrop. "Hopefully
we’ll be able to bring a sense of empowerment to each other, bringing
the feeling out that we can make a difference."
Michael McKillip, legislative director for the
organization, believes that organizing an effort to bring all college
chapters together is important.
"College chapters are critical to our ability
to educate the public," said McKillip. "We’re bringing
all of these folks together to hear from them, to educate them on the
history of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and to find out
what their needs are."
McKillip said collaborating campus chapters of
the union and establishing network relations and infrastructure for
college chapters has been his "pride and joy."
"When I was hired, part of my commitment to
the ICLU was to develop a strong college chapter base and to make sure
they had someone to work with on regular basis," said McKillip.
McKillip said Purdue’s was one of the two
most active chapters in Indiana. He said he planned to use Purdue’s
chapter as a role model for other universities that want to develop
a chapter.
One of the primary components for the conference
is to educate students about changes that have been made since the terrorist
attacks of Sept. 11.
A large amount of action has been taken in Congress
lately that changed due process rights and criminal justice policies,
said McKillip. He said he would like to teach the chapters who attend
the conference about these changes so that they can further educate
the public.
Holtrop said major objectives for the youth conference
include networking, working on a national web page for all chapters
of the union, meeting new people and having a good time.
Purdue’s chapter, in collaboration with others,
is developing a Web site. The Web site, which will be at www.getaclu.org,
will be accessible for the public and will be used as a tool to educate
the public about its rights. The Web site will be another topic of focus
at the conference.
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