BY YINGJIA WANG

In print | October 11, 2007

A prominent part of campus student activism at Swarthmore, Swat Sudan, recently underwent a makeover. Now a chapter of STAND, the group has simultaneously broadened its mission to include working against not only the crimes in Darfur, but against genocide everywhere.

Founded shortly after the Genocide Intervention Fund (now named the Genocide Intervention Network) was started, Swat Sudan quickly grew to be an active group on campus. According to STAND National College Outreach Coordinator Erin Heaney ’09, although the GI-Fund could not be officially affiliated with a college at the time, the GI-Fund and Swat Sudan still worked together closely. However, since then much has changed. The GI-Fund changed its name to the GI-Network and affiliated itself with STAND. STAND, in the past, stood for Students Taking Action Now: Darfur but now describes itself on its Web site as an umbrella organization of over 600 high school and college chapters dedicated to putting an end to genocide.

According to one of the Swat STAND leaders Elizabeth Calvert-Kilbane ‘10, while Swat Sudan has been a member of the STAND national organization prior to this year, it decided to change its name to better align itself within the organization. Renaming the Swarthmore chapter also signifies the group’s broader stance against genocide. Part of the reason we’re changing our name from Swat Sudan is that we’re switching our focus from just [being a group about] Sudan to being a general genocide group, Calvert-Kilbane said. Heaney also emphasized Swarthmore STAND’s desire for longevity. We want to be around for a long time, even when Darfur is over, Heaney said.

Swarthmore STAND had an exciting and busy start this year, having already sent members to the Dream for Darfur rally in Philadelphia this past weekend and the STAND National Conference in Washington D.C. the weekend of Sept. 29. Eleven students from Swarthmore attended the national conference, where they attended workshops and listened to speakers who have had first-hand experience with genocide.

I had known some about the genocide in Darfur beforehand, and I definitely learned a lot more about it. It made it seem more real to me, STAND member Logan Osgood-Jacobs ‘11 said. You talk to other people who have lived [in the United States] all their lives, and who say yes, it’s a genocide, and we need to do something. But it’s a really different thing to hear and see people speak about the genocide when they have seen it personally ¦ It made it hit home.

Osgood-Jacobs also noted that, although Swarthmore STAND was already well connected and active within the national organization, the conference gave Swarthmore members an opportunity to further their networks.

In addition, the Swarthmore chapter became better acquainted with the other chapters in Pennsylvania. It was fun for us to get to know each other and come together as a group, Osgood-Jacobs said.

In addition to Swarthmore STAND’s group accomplishments, three students at the college have significant roles in the national organization. Along with Heaney, Nick Gaw ’09 and Alexa Malishchak ’09 are key leaders in the national chapter of STAND. As the STAND Web site reports, Gaw is the Mid-Atlantic Outreach Coordinator. According to Heaney, Malishchak oversees divestment efforts in the state of Pennsylvania.

STAND members at the college see the benefit in having their Swarthmore peers active in the organization at a national level.

Having people from STAND national in our group is nice because it gives us ties to the national organization. It means that we also get the overall perspective rather than just a Swarthmore view, Calvert-Kilbane said.

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