Remember reading the latest campus news in The Spectator, attending a Buffers
or Special K concert, or finding your senior photo in The Hamiltonian? Although
many of Hamilton's more than 100 student-run clubs and organizations go back
decades, each year new initiatives begin and others dissolve reflecting
ever-changing student interests. In the past three years alone, two dozen
student groups gained club status. Here's a sampling:
VOX -- Voices for Planned Parenthood
For Audrea Critelli '04, Catherine
Klein '04, Lauren Leatherman '05 and Lindsey Randolph '04, what started out as a
trip to hear Sarah Weddington turned into an impetus for activism. Although the
four women had a general interest in women's rights before traveling to Saratoga
Springs, N.Y., to hear the attorney who successfully argued Roe v. Wade, they
soon realized that they could not ignore her message -- it was their time to
fight for their rights, just as she had when she was their age.
Leading the Hamilton contingent at the March for Women's Lives in Washington,
D.C., this spring were VOX founders (foreground, from left): Lauren Leatherman
'05, Audrea Critelli '04, Lindsey Randolph '04 and Catherine Klein '04.
The group
established a Hamilton chapter of VOX (Voices for Planned Parenthood) that works
to keep the campus informed about issues related to human sexuality and women's
reproductive rights, including the importance of condom use, the legal
definitions of rape and consent, and current political debates and legislation
regarding contraception and abortion. They -- and their membership of more than
50 students, both male and female -- have distributed condoms, set up
information tables and circulated flyers, and even sponsored "Sex Jeopardy" in
The Little Pub. In conjunction with the Sexual Assault Center, VOX sponsored the
panel, "Making Sex Safe and Safe Sex Sexy," and worked with the Womyn's Center
on its annual Take Back the Night event. But the highlight of the year came this
spring when the group led 35 Hamilton students on a trip to Washington, D.C.,
where they joined more than 1.1 million participants in the March for Women's
Lives.
Because of their work bringing issues of safe sex and sexuality to the
forefront, the members of VOX have become known around campus as "the condom
girls." But that's a nickname they take in stride. "I may be the only girl at
Hamilton who has 700 condoms in her room," Randolph laughed. "But all joking
aside, you can't become complacent about your rights."
