Great Acts of Student Activism

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Recently, Harvard students protested the university’s decision to stop offering anonymous HIV testing. According to the Harvard Crimson, the students staged their demonstration with  signs bearing slogans like “My right to privacy includes my right to anonymity.”

But the signs were Plan B. Plan A would have been really cool:

Protestors had originally planned to request HIV tests en masse in order to demonstrate the demand for anonymous testing. But a majority of protesters were turned away by UHS because they did not have an appointment or an actual medical ailment, according to Craig B. Colbeck, a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences student.

It’s a great idea—and we know today’s students activists have plenty more where that one came from. MoJo, Campus Progress, and WireTap would like to hear about all feats of student activism (the more creative the better) from the past school year in time for the Hellraisers, our first annual student activism awards.

Here’s how it works: You tell us about your favorite activism antics. Selected nominees will be featured in the September/October 2009 issue of Mother Jones.

Anyone can nominate any current student activists (and we’re not just talking college here! High schoolers, grad students, kindergartners—all okay).

Nominating is quick and easy. Do it here.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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