LAF Book Sale

Do you want to discover wonderful books to peruse during the forthcoming balmy days of summer? You will get this opportunity at the May 19 branch meeting at the annual LAF "gently-used" book sale. Paperback books will be $2 apiece or 3/$5. Hardbacks and other media items (CD's, DVD's, VHS tapes, etc.) will be $3 each. This is a great way to find some informative and entertaining reading materials for the coming warmer months.

Donations of books are needed to make our sale successful. Check your bookshelves for suitable items and bring them to the May luncheon. Marilyn Roland, 752-5257, would be glad to pick up your donations after May 3 if you will not be at the luncheon.

Each time members contribute to LAF they're making a statement that issues such as sexual harassment, pay discrimination and tenure bias have no place on college campuses. Because of you, LAF has provided support to over 100 plaintiffs, giving over $1.3 million in financial assistance.

---

 

Plaintiffs Speak at AAUW State Meetings Around the Country

The AAUW Educational Foundation Board awarded travel grants to sponsor current and past LAF-supported plaintiffs as speakers at nine state meetings in 2007. Plaintiffs will describe how they fought against sex discrimination on issues such as Title IX, retaliation, tenure and pay inequity on their campuses. Speaking at the Oregon State AAUW Convention April 27-29 in Salem will be Colleen Crangle (Crangle v Stanford University).

---

 

LAF Campus Outreach:

A Dynamic Approach to Teaching About Sexual Harassment

The AAUW Legal Advocacy Fund's campus outreach program is a proactive effort to stop sex discrimination before it starts. The purpose of the program is to present activities that educate students and staff about sex discrimination issues, share ways to address and prevent sex discrimination, and provide action steps toward creating a more equitable campus climate. This past November, LAF staff teamed up with the AAUW Rochester (NY) Branch and the State University of New York at Geneseo to present a particularly creative and effective program for students that was derived from the AAUW Educational Foundation report "Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment on Campus".

The program was based on a model known as social action theater, which uses audience participation in an interactive forum. Social action theater facilitates discussion on a diverse range of issues with the goal of creating an environment of inclusiveness and audience participation so that performed scenes and issues of conflict can be resolved. This particular program began with a short lecture on the AAUW Educational Foundation's research, followed by a series of skits demonstrating instances of sexual harassment on campus. After each skit, student leaders and attorneys led attending students in a discussion of what constituted legal sexual harassment and what was a precursor to sexual harassment. Participants were then given the opportunity to step into the scene onstage and alter the outcome to mitigate or end the sexual harassment. The program was a wonderful success with excellent student participation.

---