Not on Our Campus program to be presented

As part of the college?s ongoing commitment to foster a diverse community, Skidmore will launch a ?Not On Our Campus? campaign as students return from winter break.

At campus-wide Residential Life meetings on Wednesday, Jan. 23, students will be invited to sign a card pledging to ?take a stand against any and all hateful actions,? and to display a ?Not On Our Campus? sign on their room doors. To encourage the campus community to become one of the first to join the national ?Not in Our Town? movement, a Jan. 28 ?Not On Our Campus? event will feature a screening of the powerful pro-tolerance PBS documentary, Not In Our Town, at 7:30 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium. After the screening, filmmaker Patrice O?Neill will lead a discussion on how the Skidmore community can work toward a successful pluralistic community.

As executive producer and co-founder of the nonprofit media company The Working Group, O?Neill has produced successful PBS series for 15 years. Her 1995 documentary, Not In Our Town, told the story of how the town of Billings, Mont., responded to a rash of hate crimes. When neighbors were threatened by white supremacists, the townspeople, religious and community leaders, labor union volunteers, law enforcement, and newspapers joined together to speak out for a hate-free community. O?Neill?s critically acclaimed PBS special sparked a grassroots national campaign against hate and intolerance, inspiring screenings and town hall meetings in hundreds of communities across the country.

Drawn to themes of race, labor, and the importance of citizen participation in democracy, O?Neill also produced the PBS series The Fire Next Time, We Do the Work, and Livelyhood.


For more information:

http://theworkinggroup.org/niotvideo.html (Video clip from Not in our Town)

http://www.pbs.org/niot/ (Information on the Not in our Town films and movement)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkcOZSgpg9w (Link to Mary Stange?s Senior Seminar film project on bias incidents at Skidmore.)