Voicebox

From GrinnellWiki

Jump to: navigation, search
The Voicebox is a center (or hub) to support social justice and activism at Grinnell located on the third floor of the JRC. By offering a physical space, resources and support, the Center aims to help individuals and groups more effectivly advocate for issues of social justice. The Voicebox supports all types of social justice and anyone is invited to use the resources the center provides.

Contents

About the Voicebox

The Voicebox meeting and work space
The Voicebox meeting and work space
Located on the 3rd floor of the JRC the center aims to provide resources and support to student activism and social justice. The center is run by two part-time paid voicebox administrators, who care for the center's physical space, coordinate room reservations, maintain the budget, and help groups. There are also voluntary positions for a voicebox historian, voicebox liaison, and voicebox librarian who serve to collect records on activism and social justice work on campus, connect with other activists around the country, and expand the library's resources respectively.


Administrators are generally available in the Voicebox Monday-Thursday from 7:30-9 to answer any questions you may have and to help groups or students on projects.

Supporting Activism on Campus

The Voicebox provides a number of resources and services to help students and student groups to more effectively advocate for issues of social justice. These resources include:

  • Voicebox Activism Library with books, training guides, pamphlets and other educational materials to help inform and guide social justice work.
  • Voicebox Historical Records that document past activities by students and student groups, in order to retain institutional memory and help future groups benefit from past successes. In addition to the physical historical records are stored in the Voicebox, the center is also working to collect alumni activism and social justice stories.
  • Voicebox How To's that provide basic instructions on how to get things done on campus, including How to start a student group, How to get funding, and How to plan an event.
  • Voicebox Activist 2 Activist Program which works to connect activists on campus with one another.
  • Voicebox Support Program in which the center's administrators can meet with students or groups to help them become more effective at what they do. By shooting an email to administrators at voicebox@grinnell.edu you can schedule a meeting to learn about any number of things, including how to:
    • Start a student group
    • Recruit members
    • Keep group membership up
    • Hold a more effective meeting
    • Plan a successful campaign or project
    • Organize an event
    • Bring a speaker
    • Utilize the press for your cause
    • Develop a strong message for your project
    • Present to the administration or Trustees
    • Find conferences or activist events to attend
    • Connect with other groups or individuals who share similar interests
    • Connect with experienced activists on campus
    • Coordinate with other groups to plan a joint event
    • Connect with alums working on similar issues
    • Get funding for an event or activity
    • Do pretty much anything else related to activism or social justice
  • Voicebox Grinnell Gallery with photos of all sorts of activism events. Contributions greatly appreciated! Email voicebox@grinnell.edu if you have images you would like to add and we can give you the password.
  • Voicebox Conference Database which includes a list of conferences and recurring events that Grinnellians have attended in the past.
  • Voicebox Power Map, an interactive diagram that details how the administration is organized at Grinnell.
  • Scholarship Database of cool scholarship or grant opportunities students have heard of or applied for.

Getting Involved

Get involved! There are all sorts of opportunities to become involved with activism and social justice on campus. You can:

History of the Voicebox

While Grinnell College has historically had a strong legacy of activism and social justice advocacy, many students and student groups were frustrated by the boom-bust cycle groups experienced when leaders graduated and institutional knowledge was lost. Therefore, during the fall of 2005 (?) a group of students got together with the goal of creating a physical space that would support and coordinate the activities of activist groups and individuals on Grinnell's campus, as well as in town. They envisioned this space would serve to address several problems with activism at Grinnell, including:

  • A lack of visibility of activism
  • A lack of knowledge about activist opportunities and groups
  • No central, all-inclusive physical space for supporting activism
  • Difficulty, particularly for students, in sustaining projects and groups over many years, after prominent activists graduate
  • Nonexistent, widely dispersed or inaccessible records of past activist projects and groups
  • No central source for generic activist materials or books, or support for student groups interested in co-sponsoring generic activist events
  • A lack of communication about activist issues between students, faculty, staff, alumni, community members and students at other colleges/universities, even though many share common interests and goals
  • Difficulty in learning of and participating in activism opportunities initiated by others

The students also saw this activism center as one that would not only encourage and support activism of any kind at Grinnell, but would act as a symbol of the College community's ongoing commitment to social, political, economic and environmental action.

Past Voicebox Projects

In the fall of 2007 the center hosted a Campus Activism Now (CAN) conference.

Voicebox Staff

Voicebox Administrators

The Voicebox staff includes two part-time paid administrative assistants, who maintain the daily operations of the center. Duties of the administrative assistants include:

  • Maintaining email account and be a sort of "switchboard" through which email contact would be coordinated
  • Assisting in caring for the Center's physical space (e.g. clean up, stock paper)
  • Coordinating volunteer monitors of the Center
  • Coordinating reservations for the use of Center space for meetings and other activities
  • Maintaining and soliciting contributions to the large events calendar in the Center, so that it is current and well-used
  • Maintaining the center's budget
  • Securing funding for operations and purchases, preferably from more than one source
  • Tracking all purchases and regularly report to the group
  • Drafting future itemized budgets, based upon the Committee's decisions
  • Assisting groups and individuals in finding funding for their activities
  • Working with voicebox liaison and voicebox librarian positions to help track and promote events and help manage checkout items
  • Keep office hours in order to serve as a resource for students and groups


The administrators serve at the pleasure of the voicebox administrative board and those involved with the Voicebox as a whole. Significant decisions are left to the administrative board, while administrative assistants participate in these decisions as members, rather than on their own. Administrators are chosen by the board and serve for one year.
Visit Ongoing administrative projects to view a list of the different things administrators are working on.

Voicebox Historian

The Voicebox historians are responsible for the Voicebox Historical Records and are responsible for:

  • Gather past records of Grinnell activist groups and projects in a central filing cabinet in the Voicebox.
  • Continue to collect records from current activist activities.
  • Keep records organized and available for use
  • Release a semesterly publication recording events in activism at Grinnell


The historical records are available in a filing cabinet in the Voicebox. Feel free to look through the materials and make copies of anything you'd like (as these records CANNOT be removed from the room). Before starting a project or campaign it might be helpful for groups to check out the records and see what has been done by others in the past, as well as whether or not there may be resources (information, pamphlets, posters, etc) that can be used.

Voicebox Liaison

The Liaison's job is to:

  • Maintain contact with groups at other schools
  • Promote contact/sharing/coordination between students, faculty, staff and community


If you're interested in filling the Liaison position or have information to share with the liaison please email the Voicebox at [voicebox].

Voicebox Librarian

The librarian oversees the Voicebox Activism Library and is responsible for:

  • Managing a checkout system for books, videos, megaphones and whatever else is available for checking-out to students
  • Tracking overdue materials
  • Soliciting donations and manage purchasing of new materials, based on input from the Committee and greater activist community.


If you have title suggestions, donations for the library, or would like to fill the librarian position, email the Voicebox at [voicebox].

Voicebox Administrative Board

The center has also developed a Voicebox administrative board. The board serves as a core group of experienced activists that provide support and guidance for the long-term vision of the Voicebox. They also help students and groups in their social justice work.

Additional Resources

Additional activism resources include:


Retrieved from "http://www.grinnellwiki.com/index.php?title=Voicebox"