MUNCIE, Ind. (NewsLink) - On Monday, Oct. 28, students and climate activists gathered at Shafer Tower to hold a climate strike. The strike, titled BSU Climate Strike: Block McKinley, took place at noon and was announced through a Facebook event post.
The strike was put together by Philomena Engel, a Ball State senior and anthropology and classics major. Engel said that she and other classmates typically get frustrated when talking about climate change in her environmental ethics class and believes people should be concerned.
“We were learning about climate change and especially about how much needs to be done to address it,” said Engel.
Engel and nine others met at the bell tower at the arranged time with signs displaying their beliefs about the Earth and hoped to encourage others that the planet needs to be protected.
After spending some time at the tower, the strike moved down McKinley Ave towards Ball State’s quad. During the march down McKinley, the activists yelled various chants to make sure their message would be heard, like “show me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like” and “who’s Earth? Our Earth.”
During the march, NewsLink Indiana’s Tylor Brummett spoke with activist Jennifer Rice-Snow about why she participated, “... I want people to live comfortably for a long time and not have the next generations really suffer.”
Rice-Snow and Engel also believed climate change cannot be fixed without the help of the community. “I hope more people will get involved and will look at their own choices,” said Rice-Snow.
“We think there’s a lot of room for growth here and a lot of change that we can show to the rest of the nation as well,” Engel stated.
Engel also said that people at the strike and on the Facebook page voted on grievances that Engel plans to take to Jim Lowe, associate vice president for facilities planning and management at Ball State. The demands include increasing investment in produce, herbs and meat from local farms, making future Ball State building carbon neutral and more.
Engel also said this is the first strike she arranged and she hopes to arrange more in the future and get more people involved.
For any comments or concerns about this story, contact the author at emharless@bsu.edu.
