Welcome to the Center for Civic Justice blog!

As I draft this introductory post, I fall back on my brief two-semester era with the Center for Civic Justice, all that we have done in our short time as Stony Brook University’s premier hub for civic engagement. I look back on our successes, from registering students to vote to manning incredibly successful community dialogues attended by sometimes hundreds of eager participants, students, and faculty alike (many who are likely there for University Scholars credit but a victory nevertheless).

Today, the Center for Civic Justice plays the role of a triathlon athlete. The members of the Center for Civic Justice are willing to tackle the challenges standing in our way to achieve the goal of cultivating, developing, and empowering active and engaged Seawolves.

This may seem quite overwhelming at first. In the spirit of simplicity, let us pull back the lever on our figurative time machine and explore what the Center for Civic Justice is to Stony Brook University, and I’ll also do my best to explain what the role of this blog is for.

The Center for Civic Justice is a part of Stony Brook University’s Division of Student Affairs. We’ve hosted events such as ‘Community Dialogues’ and ‘Knowledge Communities,’ where we’ve encouraged moderated discussions about contemporary issues. We’ve brought guests such as Dr. Clarence Jones onto the campus. If you’ve been registered to vote recently, it was most likely done under the guidance of one of our interns.

Like the Swiss Army Knife of campus organizations, we have an awful lot of activities. Yet, at the end of the day, those core tenets of awareness, advocacy, and action linger under each and every Center-sponsored event, presentation, or anything in between.

Civic Justice is embedded within our namesake. If social justice is what we believe and civic engagement is what we can do, then civic justice hopes to combine the two into a singular form of being.

Interns have a myriad of tasks, including but not limited to registering students to vote, tabling for civic engagement initiatives, organizing and executing community dialogues and smaller but equally as effortful ‘knowledge communities,’ engaging in community service activities, and much more. Interns are also placed in project groups with tasks that differ every semester. One team may be responsible for creating video content for the upcoming 2020 Census, for example, while another may be figuring out the logistics of bringing a speaker onto campus.

Therefore, many have highlighted, with vigorous enthusiasm, our accomplishments in the past two years. However, as I may be so bold as to say:

Spring 2020 is looking to be an even better semester!

For the first time, each member of the Center will helm their own particular project. In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be proud to highlight some of these projects, which range from as ambitious as hosting a town hall to as personal as investigating the role of police officers in contemporary American society. Furthermore, we’ll also open our doors to the public. No longer does a participant in the Center for Civic Justice need to be an intern. Those with even the mildest hint of benign curiosity are welcome to volunteer or attend monthly general body meetings.

Then, in April, we face the grandest call to arms of our short existence, the pièce de résistance, if I may, of a restaurant so eagerly named ‘civic engagement.’ Yes, I am talking about the April 2020 New York State presidential primary, which the Center for Civic Justice will take charge of, ultimately with the goal to increase voter turnout to record-shattering levels.

Nevertheless, what you are reading right now is a highlight reel of sorts for the Center for Civic Justice. It’s a way to introduce prospective investors, students, or others into our cause to our achievements by synthesizing into a loosely-structured and immensely ‘fun’ posts. Posts on the other side of the spectrum will highlight all the wonderful individual projects pursued by members of the Center for Civic Justice.

Within this blog will be stories that hope to characterize the many diverse activists that make up our organizations, from the interns burdening the core of the grunt work to the team leaders, ambassadors for the Andrew Goodman Foundation, that envision a new, -engaged campus never before dreamt of in the history of Stony Brook University.

Of course, none of this would be possible without this team’s coordinator, Steven Adelson. Steven planted the seeds for what would eventually be known as the Center for Civic Justice as far back as his undergraduate years at Stony Brook University. Today, like an excited gardener, he has seen it grow exponentially beyond his wildest dreams.

He’s also the person you should contact if you have any concerns!

We here at the Center for Civic Justice believe that stories are the best ways to engage a community, to highlight our strengths, and map out our future. Ultimately, it’s the ideal way to humanize our efforts by putting a face on an idea.

This semester, I hope to bring you stories recounting our achievements. We’ve had many good things said about us, especially surrounding our increased voter turnout rates. But it’s time to show the world what that looks like, what exists outside the numbers, the percentages, or the rates of increase. It’s time to show the world our story.

-Kevin Wu