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Dozens of 51���� students proved this past weekend that they are politically engaged when it comes to environmental issues.

Students participated in Step It Up! and Power Shift, rallying both on campus and on Capitol Hill to demand governmental action to combat global warming and address other pressing environmental issues.
Step It Up! is a grassroots movement started by Bill McKibben, a recent visitor to campus.
Approximately 60 students, faculty, and community members gathered on the Academic Quad as part of a nationwide demonstration urging politicians to support climate change legislation.
Ian Helfant, associate professor of Russian and chair of the Environmental Council, spoke about 51����’s environmental impact along with student leaders Matt Wisnieff ’08, of the Senior Class Gift Committee, and Lydia Gottesfeld ’08, of Democracy Matters.
Rachel Surprenant ’08, rally coordinator, also made an address in which she referred to a statement made by McKibben describing environmental problems as a “weight” on the students’ generation.
Surprenant commented, “It’s not really a weight as much as it is an opportunity.”
This attitude is shared by a number of students, particularly the two dozen who attended the Power Shift conference held in Washington, D.C.
The four-day event, which drew 6,000 college students, consisted of workshops, panels, and speakers providing information to affect change.
Students split into groups according to their school’s location, allowing students to exchange ideas and make contacts.
“If someone said, ‘I want to bring composting to my campus,’ another student could provide them with the company that helped their school and then through that, we formed a huge database and forum,” explained Katelyn Ciolino ’10, organizer of 51����’s Power Shift group.
“Every social movement, the way they have succeeded is by coalition. That was what this was — building coalition. It was 6,000 students going to a conference and getting as much information as they could in order to put it into action on campus and in communities.”
The event culminated with a march to Capitol Hill, where students met with their representative or senator.
John Kapnick ’10 and two other college students had the opportunity to take part in a videoconference with Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic presidential candidate.
Now that the students have petitioned the government, their next step is to bring the information they gained back to campus.
This Friday, the attendees of Power Shift will be holding a brown bag with the Environmental Studies Program to discuss what they learned.