A coalition of student groups are at the beginning of a seven-day campaign to protest and call attention to social and environmental concerns at MSU.
The campaign, called the 150 Hours of Struggle, is part of a larger initiative to highlight how student groups have contributed to the history of MSU through activism and struggle during the past 150 years, said Erik Green, director of Racial, Ethnic, and Progressive Affairs.
The effort, he said, aims to increase communication between students and administrators about opportunities to improve the way MSU administrators address student concerns as the university celebrates its sesquicentennial, the school's 150th birthday.
"We are the history, we are the 150 years and we want to be involved," Green said.
The campaign got off to a slow start on Saturday in front of the Administration Building due to adverse weather and a busy weekend. Only a few bystanders showed up to listen to the initial first hours of the campaign, in which three students chalked sidewalks and held a candlelight vigil.
Each day of the 150 Hours of Struggle reflects a different student organization's struggle to get administrators to recognize the students' social concerns. These concerns include increasing accessibility and investing in renewable energy on campus, creating and funding comprehensive sexual assault education and ending racial inequities at MSU.
Groups will fill four-hour shifts with activities such as handing out fliers, holding vigils or chalking campus sidewalks, and the week will culminate at Friday's MSU Board of Trustees meeting when a list of seven student struggles will be presented to the board.
Some of the other groups coordinating activities during the week include the Council for Students with Disabilities, Students for Economic Justice, Eco, ASMSU and Residence Halls Association.
"We're bringing focus to students and what struggles they're going through," Green said. "Students out here are showing off their struggles to the administrators to get them to pay attention and work with us."
The focus of Saturday's event was to get gender identity rights included in the university's anti-discrimination policy. The policy states students, faculty and staff can't be discriminated against based on gender, race or sexual preference. The policy does not include gender identity.
Women's Council co-President Anne Bresler said Saturday's event was held during a busy weekend of sporting events and despite not having a huge student turnout for the start of the campaign, student groups were brought together.
"It was low key, but it was a good way to raise awareness," Bresler said. "It's a great way to show that students are together in a lot of other group's issues."
On Monday, about 20 members of Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience (MRULE) and the MSU College Democrats protested and gathered student support to get MSU to come out publicly in opposition to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, to ban race and gender-based preferences in university admissions and government hiring and contracts.
MRULE student leader Tomi Ogundimu said the group was able to talk to more than 1,000 students about their struggle as they walked through campus.
"It's been a great success and hopefully it will only get bigger, and get bigger attention throughout campus," the human biology junior said.
English senior Jocelyn Johnson was one of about 400 students who walked by the campaign site and decided to sign a letter asking the Board of Trustees to come out publicly in opposition of MCRI.
"The campaign is good," she said. "I'm going to convince as many people as I can to go to the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday."
