Civil liberties union chapters
meet, share ideas
By Heather Mangold
City
Editor
Students of Purdue's chapter of the Indiana Civil
Liberties Union joined the Indiana University Southeast campus on Saturday
at the first ever youth conference for the organization in Indianapolis.
Both chapters came together to share ideas and
to educate themselves about the changing issues that the nation faces
as bio-terrorism, war and other factors become fears in the hearts of
Americans.
Joe Holtrop, president of Purdue's chapter of the
union, said dealing with anti-terrorism legislative issues can be a
touchy subject.
"You're dealing with security versus freedom,"
said Holtrop. "Obviously, they are both very important issues."
Holtrop said students discussed how they felt about
anti-terrorist acts and how they could affect the lives of Americans
from now on.
"The effects they can have is something that we
want to make others aware of as well as make ourselves aware," said
Holtrop.
Indiana Civil Liberties Union president Hamid Kaschani
led the conference in an effort to educate the students on how they
should go about educating the public on their rights regarding the events
that follow the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
Solidarity was the word of the day as chapter members
from both campuses, the only two from Indiana, networked with another
and shared ideas.
Andrea Callan, trip coordinator for Purdue's chapter,
said the two schools discussed forming a news group between them for
better communication purposes. The group would be similar to yahoogroups.com
where both schools could communicate with one another in addition to
the public's ability to contact them. A motion was submitted and passed
to form the group.
"Eventually we're going to be able to have the
regular public send us e-mails and give us their concerns," said Callan.
Callan said, for the most part, the meeting was
informal and people came simply to get to know one another. She said
she found out that Purdue's chapter exceeded the membership of Indiana
University Southeast's chapter by several members.
"They were really astonished with the membership
we had," said Callan. "Purdue is the biggest chapter in Indiana as far
as the amount of students involved."
Purdue is also the longest running college chapter
of the union, said Callan. It was formed in 1953 and now shares the
college chapter title with only one other school in the state.
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