Campaign stickers dating back as far as the 1970s almost entirely cover a sprawling cement banister in the Survival Center’s clubroom in the basement of the EMU. In the dozens of filing cabinets lining the room, remnants from the room’s former occupants — like copies of publications from groups like the Cascadia Media Collective@@http://www.myspace.com/cascadiamedia@@ (a leading figure in documenting the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization) — have been left untouched.
Hidden among the room’s disorder, the center’s former co-director Ben Jones@@http://safetyweb.uoregon.edu/content/oregon-daily-emerald-letter-editor-regarding-dps-becoming-police-force@@ swears there is a video of the first-ever tree sit-in on campus. A list of all the endangered species, documented by the Center for Biodiversity,@@where is this center located?@@ is also hidden somewhere in the room.
The Survival Center is one of the university’s oldest student groups.
“It’s had a history that dates back now five decades,” Cimmeron Gillespie said of the room’s history.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=+Gillespie@@ He is a member of the Student Insurgent — another Survival Center inhabitant.
The Survival Center began in the early 1970s when a group of students from a University class entitled Can Man Survive, which analyzed how humanity’s social and environmental impact could eventually lead to the end of society, decided to establish a permanent space to debate these issues and promote student activism on campus.
Initially, the center had a professional staff member. However, in the 1990s this was abolished in favor of student co-directors, establishing an entirely student-run center that provides students with financial assistance, networking ideas and other resources to advocate for anything ranging from animal rights to petitioning for a new federal drug policy.
“It’s important to have a student-run space for students that pushes the limits on what’s allowed,” said Karyn Smoot, a director of the Survival Center@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Karyn+Smoot@@.
But now, in the midst of proposed EMU renovation plans, the future of this historic campus space is unclear.
“It makes me nervous that the Survival Center wasn’t really being considered for space,” said ASUO Senator Jeremy Hedlund,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Jeremy+Hedlund@@ a member of the EMU Board.
For the three current directors, guaranteeing the continued existence of the center with as much space as it currently occupies is important because it offers a unique service to student groups.
“The Survival Center has consistently been a constant source of dissent on campus,” said Thomas Walker, another director of the center@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Thomas+Walker@@, adding that it does this without any oversight from faculty or administration. “The Survival Center has a great power to criticize the administration.”
Not being tied down by the university also allows students to expand their activism past campus without restrictions, Smoot said. “There aren’t a lot of channels for students to get involved with the community that aren’t guided by the university. People are always trying to find a space for activism. If the goal of the new EMU is to encourage student engagement at all, then the Survival Center needs to be included.”
While the EMU renovations are the most recent, threats of closure are nothing new to the center. During the 2006-2007 school year, for example, the university came close to shutting the office down. According to Gillespie, who was enrolled at the time, the university claimed that the room’s setup violated fire marshal regulations. Gillespie and others, however, theorized that a series of student protests outside Johnson Hall against Nike sweatshops also contributed to the university’s attempts to close it down.
Whatever the reason for the attempted closure, eventually supporters of the center rallied together to ensure that it remained open.
Now, according to Hedlund, the space may need to be defended again in order to stay open.
“If the renovation does pass, they really need to show that they’re a valid student group,” Hedlund said.”They need to make noise.”
University’s Survival Center faces potential loss of space
Daily Emerald
October 25, 2011
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