Students Organize to Pass the ERA

Deb Jung, campus organizer for the National Organization for Women (NOW), last night recruited a 25-member "action team" to mobilize campus sentiment and raise support among politicians and the general public for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

Jung, speaking at a meeting sponsored by the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), outlined a letter-writing and petitioning campaign for the team, which includes several graduate students and one man, and added that the group will "shadow" presidential candidates speaking in the area to insure that the ERA is an important issue in their campaigns and to force them to clarify their positions on the issue.

The team will be part of a national network of college groups working for ratification by the June 30, 1982, deadline.

Cement

"We're looking for concrete action. If we don't get activated now, the ERA won't get passed," Jung said, adding that she is hoping to draw substantial student support from their two-day effort here.

With only slightly more than two years before the ratification period ends, Jung said citizens must make the ERA "a very visible presence," by appealing to President Carter, presidential candidates, Congressmen and state legislators in states that have yet to ratify the ERA.

Although Massachusetts ratified the ERA in 1972 and already has an equal rights amendment in its state constitution, campus activists here can influence voters and politicians in the unratified states, Jung said. "We all live in an unratified nation," Jung said, adding, "We need as much support as we can get."

Solidarity

The team plans to set up ERA tables in the dining halls, hold letter-writing sessions, and canvass campus events.

Jung said the Democratic Convention may be an important platform, especially if Carter "who has paid a lot of lip-service to the ERA" wins the nomination.

Long Distance

"We had to mobilize ERA support on a nation-wide level," Jung said, adding that the actions teams that have been set up across the country should accomplish this goal.