The problems addressed in this project were the inaccessibility of the social welfare system and how to help students find the resources they may need. The social welfare system can be complex to navigate. Difficulties in finding resources could result in a lack of access to needed services. The main goal of the project was to raise awareness of the difficulties of the welfare system and centralize available resources. I chose to go with a flyer that features information about the social welfare system and resources available for students.
I started the project with a broad view of the inaccessibility of the social welfare system. The research was focused on who was most in need in the state of MD, deciding on the best way to raise awareness, and finally choosing a focal point. In my research, I found that there was a lot of information to cover, even after scaling down for the state. I decided to direct my focus to students. I found that there were differences in eligibility for students to receive housing and food assistance. Students may not be aware of what they qualify for through the social welfare system or resources available directly through UMBC. At the suggestion of Dr. Kate, I included a QR code on the flyer that links to a google document that gives more details about the resources available.
The problem we decided to address was the lack of black awareness on campus. UMBC has a history of racially motivated acts against black people. In order to address this issue, we decided to put black stories at the forefront. We thought that black movies, and with them, black media was the best way. After our movie nights, we planned to hold discussions about the black community’s different issues and provide a platform for the black artists at UMBC.
The problem our group addressed was financial literacy. We realized that students fresh out of highschool are responsible for paying thousands of dollars in tuition and housing. There is a lack of financial education across the board in highschools and colleges. We created a survey for UMBC students, so that we could have an insight into where they stand when it comes to financial literacy. Our results showed that over 53% of students expect to be in debt after they graduate and 77% were not even aware of financial literacy resources offered by UMBC. From this, it was clear that our priority needed to be raising awareness.
At the start of your project we established short-term and long-term goals. The short term goal was to develop and implement a required crash course for all incoming students at UMBC, regarding financial literacy. This is to make sure that students are aware of the financial resources they have available to them before they divide into thousands of dollars in debt. Thesis crash course would be similary to the drug, alchol, and sexual assualt/harrasment awareness courses that UMBC students are required to complete.This would also be a great way to test run the idea of our long-term goal, which would be to establish a financial literacy course that is a requirement for all academic majors. The intent would be to figure out exactly what students want and need out of this type of course and then implement it to fulfill a general education requirement for undergraduate students.
As we reached the end of our project, we decided to get in touch with the Financial Smarts department to gain more insight about what our school is currently doing to raise awareness about Financial Literacy. After speaking with program specialist, Hannah Sadollah We learned that UMBC has put in place a few programs that help students gain some skills and knowledge about money management, like Peer Money Mentor which is a paid program by our school that gives students a $500 stipend while they receive free training through the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. The goal of this program is to help students identify a topic of interest and develop one specialty workshop and share their educational workshop. Just like Peer Money Mentor, there are other programs offered at school that can help any student learn about financial literacy. We believe that it is crucial for young adults to have access to a Financial literacy course, not only UMBC but nationwide. Because it equips people with the knowledge and skills needed to manage money effectively. Without it, financial decisions and the actions we taken or not taken, lack a solid foundation for success.
Mental health has always been an issue that has been heavily advocated for and change is being made. UMBC is a great example of a school that has the resources and tries to create a community that cares, but many students at UMBC are still vastly unaware of just how many resources and support groups are accessible to them. Through our project we want to spread more awareness to the resources and support that is openly accessible to UMBC students and to make sure students know that they are not alone in their mental health struggles and that they do not have to struggle alone. Our project was called “The Butterfly Project”, stemming from the quote, “Just when the caterpillar thought its life was over it became a butterfly”, we feel this quote embodies overall how dealing with various mental health struggles can feel.
In order to spread awareness regarding the topic, we created both a website and flyer to put around the campus. The link to the website is https://jcunnin15.wixsite.com/website.
On the website, since it was created on Wix, when users scan the barcode, a registration is required to post but not to browse or look around. Users can create their own usernames which is what shows up when they post so anonymity can be optional. On the website, we have a forum so others can post whatever they like, various mental health quotes, various resources provided by UMBC and a description on the purpose and intent of our project.
Through the Department of Psychology, there was a page that listed multiple mental health resources available to UMBC students ( https://psychology.umbc.edu/mental-health-and-wellbeing-resources/). There were links to various counseling groups in the counseling center of individual and group services as well as many online platforms that deal with mental health such as WellTrack, Kognito, U Lifeline, and Togetherall. Many of these online platforms allowed students to share or give little information about themselves, keeping all of this information confidential and convenient to the students. We made sure to list links to these resources on both our flyer and website.
On our flyer, listed below, we made sure to include information about what our project was aiming to do, data on college students and mental health, and making sure there was clear easy access to our website via the QR code.
We wish we had been more proactive when it came to the advertising of our project, so we would be able to monitor student engagement with our website. We felt that as long as we were are able to reach our fellow peers and bring awareness to all the programs and resources they have at their fingertips, we are successful in our project’s mission. It also means being able to see engagement on the website through the Wellness Forum and knowing it has helped students who need it.
We worked on providing free menstrual products in all bathrooms on campus. We relied on support from different offices around campus, such as, the Sustainability center, PRIDE center, the Women’s center, etc. We are grateful for the support and guidance from these offices during our project.
Our project was a Sexual Assault Awareness Workshop. We held a workshop in the Harbor Hall Courtyard where we handed out pamphlets and made a QR Code to spread awareness and give students access to SA resources on campus. If you scan the barcode above you will be able to access those very same resources shared at the workshop. Our goal was to encourage outreach at UMBC and spread useful information to students. At first, we thought if we just handed out pamphlets and shared information, we wouldn’t get much of a turn-up. So, we decided to tie-dye T-shirts, while spreading awareness and information. A number of people showed up because of this and we were able to spread useful links and resources as we intended to do. This is important because of how often sexual assault happens on college campuses. It’s important for allies and survivors to know of the resources available on campus, and to a certain extent, we were able to fulfill that. Having Chip there we attracted a lot of students, and more people were inclined to come to visit our table. Fosters help one’s sense of well-being and relaxation so it was very nice to have her there and encourage people to stop by! It would’ve been ideal to have our workshop in a place where more students walked by. Our workshop was held in the Harbor Hall Courtyard, where only Harbor Hall residents walk by. Although we had more people show up than expected, I think we definitely could’ve gotten more information out if it was in a more public setting. I believe that the information we presented in our Sexual Assault Workshop was comprehended by the people and that many more people attended than we anticipated. It is important to add that although not many people showed up, those that did scanned the bar code and were willing to have a conversation with us about sexual assault on college campuses. There is a lot of reservation about talking about sexual assault and it definitely comes with a challenge but, the more we talk about it the less scary it gets.
Baltimore is facing major air pollution problems that have detrimental effects on the environment and its residents. Poor air quality in Baltimore is caused by a variety of factors, including industrialization and emissions from city incinerators, blighted or abandoned buildings that leave tons of waste and toxic debris, and a lack of tree coverage due to urbanization. We found this issue to be pressing because it is affecting people living in our communities, and it is important for us to advocate for those most affected by this issue in our area. As stated before, the effects of air pollution are extremely harmful and can lead to health issues such as asthma, lead poisoning, COPD, and developmental issues. This issue also mainly affects marginalized communities, primarily low-income Black people who are most likely to end up living in blighted areas. In these areas, the life expectancy is much lower than in non-blighted places.
Ribbon Cutting of the first All-Gender Restroom in Sherman Hall
On campus at UMBC, there are approximately 93 all-gender restrooms. Many of these all-gender restrooms has been changing the marker sign outside them, which means that many of the all-gender restrooms has been a women’s restroom. This means that around campus, the all-gender restroom is next to a men’s restroom. To transgender students and staff, this may be seen as inadvertently transphobic, because it may give the impression that it is men and then everyone else. This made me think, have any men’s restrooms been transformed into an all-gender restroom?
I met with Dean Keith J. Bowman to discuss the implementation of more all-gender restrooms on campus and to see if any men’s restrooms would be transformed into AGR. Dean Bowman explained that the plan to add more AGR on campus was postponed due to COVID-19 and that the plan to add more all-gendered restrooms was in two phases. Phase two will begin Summer 2022. I had tried to contact Ever Hanna about their thoughts on AGR throughout campus, however, my procrastination to answer emails and reply promptly had missed the opportunity to get Ever’s answers on my questions. They had gone on parental leave. Dean Bowman had suggested I talk to UMBC facilities to discuss the plans of implementing more all-gender restrooms around campus. I reached out to Celso Guitian, one of the main facilities staff members working on AGR. Guitian had told me about the plans to add more AGR, and that they plan to add more in the Summer of 2022, this includes six gendered restrooms to be transformed into all-gender restrooms. The total number of all gender restrooms on campus will be 105, this includes 26 multi-stall restrooms. In addition to this, they plan to add all-gender restrooms to the UMBC Stadium Complex and the Technology Research Center.
Thankfully, there were plans to continue creating more all-gender restrooms on campus. Campus facilities were eager to share the plans of adding restrooms and share their progress on the plan to continue such.
This project had gone from initially changing all restrooms on campus to AGR to only some being changed. This is because many students would feel uncomfortable using an AGR rather than a gendered restroom. Many people who follow a religion and people who have political biases towards AGR/gendered restroom may be inclined to use gendered restrooms instead of a gender-neutral restroom. I understood that changing all the restrooms on campus is unrealistic and would make people uncomfortable. The last thing I wanted to do was make any party uncomfortable. I wish that I were more prompt with my emailing, because with it then I would have been able to get further information about all-gender restrooms from UMBC staff.
Our group noticed that a lot of maps on campus were showing incorrect information regarding the locations of gender-neutral bathrooms and elevators inside buildings. We thought that it is important for people to be able to find a bathroom that they are comfortable using, and for them to find elevators quickly in order to access those bathrooms.
We first set up meeting with Dean Bowman, who advocates for the creation of more gender-neutral bathrooms. He brought up points about the monetary costs of bringing change and different ideas that have been proposed already of how to update maps. These ideas include: Adding stickers to the maps and adding signs near gendered bathrooms of where the nearest non-gendered bathroom is. We also found out that the online maps of which buildings gender-neutral bathrooms are located in was updated before we could express out concern about it, so one of goals was met.
In order to reach our goal of updating the maps, we then met with a representative, Darcie Adams, of the DAU (Disability Advocate Union) to better understand how people are affected by the lack of wayfinding. We found out that UMBC is technically compliant with ADA (American Disability Act) requirements, but it is still difficult to navigate campus as ‘UMBC is a complicated campus, and some buildings are hard to navigate’. We were told that if one knows where resources are, it is easy to find elevators/bathrooms, but without correct resources it is difficult.
With this information, we set up at meeting with Stephanie Lazarus, and Joseph Bonner. With Stephanie Lazarus (ADA/Section 504 Coordinator and Accessibility Manager, Liaison with Facilities Management) and Joseph Bonner (Head of Signage with Facilities Management), we took an accessibility walk around campus and talked about how people can navigate campus and the future plans to update the maps at UMBC. We found out that there were already plans to update the maps in the Summer, but were told bringing attention to the issue helped, and our ideas will be incorporated into the designs.
Overall, there were already plans to update the maps on campus, but campus facilities were able to hear our concerns and use them in their future plans.
Studies in Feminist Activism 