VegNews (November 2007)

Animal House
Transform your college campus into a vegan oasis

by Mat Thomas

"There are few earthly things more beautiful," wrote the British poet John Masefield, "than a university: a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see."

Indeed, the very word "university" (from the Latin universitas, meaning "the whole") implies it is an entire self-contained universe, existing both within and apart from the mundane world of workaday concerns. In this rarified atmosphere, exploration, questioning accepted values, and finding one's true calling are paramount. Add to this the sudden freedom many college students experience being away from their families and hometowns for the first time, and you have a fertile environment in which veganism can flourish.

Robin Henderson, class of '07 graduate of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, knows firsthand about the potential for campus activism. A vegetarian since the age of 14, she founded FoxP.A.W. (combining the school's official mascot with an acronym meaning People for Animal Welfare) as a transfer student her sophomore year. FoxP.A.W. was an extraordinarily effective advocacy group under Henderson's leadership, and had an enormous positive impact at Marist for animals and vegans.

"Most college students don't realize what a profound effect they can have on their campuses," says Henderson. Take, for example, FoxP.A.W.'s successful campaign to feature more plant-based meals in the school cafeteria. Henderson started by finding out what foods students liked: she set up a table in the cafeteria with meatless food samples purchased by the school, and surveyed students on their favorites, which would then be added to the menu. These efforts even earned Henderson a seat on the dining committee as the official representative of Marist's vegans and vegetarians.

"As students, we're the school's 'customers,'" Henderson maintains. "We pay thousands of dollars a year for their services, so if they want our business, they must cater to our needs, whether it's about diet or some other aspect of campus life." As such, FoxP.A.W. tackled a range of issues, from getting the school store to sell personal care products not tested on animals and convincing the fashion department to prohibit fur in student projects, to persuading the school to buy only cage-free eggs. She also made sure that the group engaged in regular outreach through tabling and other educational events.

"FoxP.A.W. got Gene Baur from Farm Sanctuary and cartoonist Dan Piraro to speak at Marist about animal issues," remembers Henderson. "We arranged for shuttles to the ASPCA shelter on volunteer nights so students could be trained to walk dogs." She also focused on building bridges with other socially progressive campus groups. "I'd attend the ecology club's meetings and talk about the links between veganism and environmentalism to recruit new members." One year, FoxP.A.W. co-sponsored bringing the AIDS quilt to campus with the LGBT club. "I wanted people to see the interconnectedness between caring for people, animals, and the environment," says Henderson, "and that animal advocates care about all these issues."

For all the time she spent making FoxP.A.W. a success, Henderson also excelled academically, stayed socially active, and worked weekends at the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, now her full-time job. Having earned her B.S. in Integrative Studies (a combination of communications, philosophy, psychology, and sociology—what she called her "change people's minds major"), Henderson handed leadership of FoxP.A.W. over to another student, and has applied to the Master's program at the Institute for Humane Education to get her teaching credential.

Students interested in establishing similar programs at their schools may use Henderson as a resource. She welcomes queries at robin@woodstockfas.org.