Former U.S. President Bill Clinton took a break from his wife’s presidential campaign trail yesterday to urge college journalists, via a phone conference, to commit to solving global and local problems by partaking in the Clinton Global Initiative University.
Clinton announced the launch of CGIU, an expansion of his non-profit, non-partisan group that promotes commitment to enacting these solutions. Clinton described CGIU as a “project my foundation started to focus on global leaders, global challenges, and to encourage leaders ... in America and around the world to come together, discuss these problems, and always commit every year to take some new specific ... action.”
CGIU will kick off at Tulane University in New Orleans, La., this March. Students from a range of universities will convene for CGIU’s inaugural meeting, which will consist of conferences led by educators, entrepreneurs, world leaders, and Clinton himself. Sessions will focus on human rights, global health, and poverty alleviation. Participants will break out into groups, and commit to enacting solutions before the next conference.
As part of the conference, attendees will leave their lodgings to work on rebuilding New Orleans, the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. “The United States will not be whole again until we make good on our commitment to the people of New Orleans,” Clinton said.
More than 500 students are slated to attend the conference. “Young people have proven they are enormously committed to changing the world, and they have enormous power to do so,” Clinton said. CGIU students will “join together to make a real difference” in human rights and health issues. Students may still apply at www.cgiu.org.
Acadia Roher, BC ’10 and president of Barnard Eco-Reps and Green Umbrella, said she is applying to attend CGIU. “I really like the idea that they’re trying to combine all different types of social issues from poverty to climate change—all those things into one bucket,” she said. “There should be interdisciplinary solutions to all these things.” Roher added that CGI is following a trend of other non-partisan groups by extending its reach to universities and “investing in college students as the future for change.”
Clinton suggested that universities charter their own non-profit Non-Government Organizations. “I’d like to see colleges brand their NGOs the same way they brand their sports teams, or their bands, or their orchestras, or their choral groups,” Clinton said. “That is one way to get everybody into it. I want people to want to join that more than they want to be in their favorite fraternity or sorority.”
Roher noted that Community Impact essentially functions as a non-profit NGO for Columbia, adding that college-run NGO’s may not be necessary because students can join the student chapters of larger organizations.
Clinton also called for students to mobilize to convince university leadership to reduce carbon emissions. “It would make a huge difference and give everybody something to do right there on the campus to promote clean energy and energy efficiency.”