https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_nos67yj5

        Our group was composed to five members: Jasmine, Eduardo, Ruby, Nathan, and myself (John). Each of us brought different skillsets and experiences to the table that helped create a cohesive presentation. Each of us had a clearly defined role when we were getting the content (photographs and videos) for our presentation. As Nathan was the more outgoing member of the group, he volunteered to hand out the flyers and be the main actor in the images and video. Eduardo and Ruby also took part in handing out the flyers to strangers in the dining hall. Jasmine and I were responsible for taking the pictures and recording the video content. As a group, I think we were able to communicate well with each other through the use of the GroupMe (chat app) app. We were able to easily coordinate a time to meet up and film the content for our subsequent group presentation. I think what helped made our project a success was that we were all open to each others’ ideas. For example, we all agreed to film at the Ikenberry Dining Hall at around 6PM because we all thought the location and time would allow us to meet many people to hand out flyers to. For our protest strategy, I think it was important to find a specific time and place that would most induce as much exposure to as many people as possible. However, I think if we could have done things differently, we would have also implemented a protest utilizing social media. To reach out to college students in particular, I think using social media can help bolster one’s efforts to spread the word about their protest and cause.

Did you know that over 20%, or at least 1 in 5, of all children in the USA live in poverty? Don’t even get me started about the poor, starving people in third world countries in Africa, South Asia, and South America. Clearly, there are children less fortunate than others who are suffering from hunger and have no voice for themselves. Yet, we can do so much more. So much more. Take action! Don’t waste food!

This project attempts to tackle the cumbersome issues inherent with food waste management in our campus dining halls. Food waste is an enormous contributor to the municipal waste stream, and its generation has significant immediate and long-term economic as well as environmental consequences that many Americans are oblivious to. Food waste is of particular interest to university administrators because nationally the cost of waste disposal has skyrocketed in recent years, and will likely only continue to increase. Additionally, there is a trend amongst universities towards reducing dining hall waste. If the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign wants to maintain its role as a leader in sustainability practices it will be necessary for our institution to consider our waste reducing options.

Our beautiful planet can provide enough food for every person to have 4600 calories a day.  For children, the average calorie intake per day is only 1600 minimum. And yet, here in the greatest country on Earth, we have an obesity epidemic. It is absolutely criminal that people in this country can get obese while children all around us starve to death daily. Wake up! What you can do to help people matters so much. Take only what you need, or give away your excess, or just save your leftovers for later. Take this food for thought, and turn it into actions that give food for others.

This project attempts to tackle the cumbersome issues inherent with food waste management in our campus dining halls. Food waste is an enormous contributor to the municipal waste stream, and its generation has significant immediate and long-term economic as well as environmental consequences that many Americans are oblivious to. Food waste is of particular interest to university administrators because nationally the cost of waste disposal has skyrocketed in recent years, and will likely only continue to increase. Additionally, there is a trend amongst universities towards reducing dining hall waste. If the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign wants to maintain its role as a leader in sustainability practices it will be necessary for our institution to consider our waste reducing options.

In light of all this, we must also consider that conducting research through food waste audits, best practice evaluations, or through contracting with external companies specializing in waste reduction techniques, such as using Lean Path software, could have a potential for minor negative effects. Food waste audits and best practice evaluations would require money to pay for those who do the research. Lean Path is more expensive due to the cost of the software and the training that is involved as well. Other negative impacts include taking time/support away from other projects around campus and that major planning is involved with improving UIUC’s waste reduction. However, these potential negative impacts are all minor and would be offset due to the knowledge gained about UIUC’s waste habits, the potential money saved on food and waste, and by the further “greening” the university and its practices.

I demand that UIUC stop segregating bathrooms along gender lines and provide all-gender bathrooms in all buildings in the University.

I believe gender-segregated bathrooms create uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situations for trans and gender-variant presenting people.

I believe gender-segregated bathrooms reinforce trans* invisibility at UIUC.

I resent statements by UIUC Administration that all-gender bathrooms are widely available on this campus, when they are in fact often difficult to find or unmarked, in inconvenient locations, or simply not available.

I acknowledge that some people, particularly women, may feel unsafe in bathrooms that are no longer gender-segregated. We invite further discussion about this issue, but are currently not aware of any studies suggesting women are more likely to experience harassment or harm in all-gender bathrooms.

I believe it is not the duty of trans* or gender-variant students to self-advocate for all- gender bathrooms on their hall/place of residence, and that residential bathrooms should be all-gender.

I want to remind white and documented people and people with class privilege that those most likely to experience violence and increased surveillance from gender- segregated bathrooms are people of color, poor people, and undocumented people.

https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_xvf5v3tr

The nude protesters in this video clearly state their motives and cause, which is that they are against Donald Trump and his presidential campaign. The next footage will be from the movement I am focusing on for this project, the World Naked Bike Ride. My main argument regarding WNBR is for the lack of clarity and meaning between the protest strategy of public nudity and for their actual cause that they are protesting for. If I didn’t tell you what they were protesting about, what would you guess? For more bike paths? Nope. But that’s what the people in this photo are protesting about in Peru. Yet, it doesn’t look different from the WNBR, right? Well then, what is the World Naked Bike Ride about? Why are these people riding bikes naked in public streets?

The use of public nudity as a part of a protest’s strategy has been widely used throughout history for various causes and movements. In this image, the protest is about women’s rights from FEMEN, which is a radical feminist activist group. In the past, women protested about their right and equality but with more clothing. In this image, it’s about animal cruelty, specifically against seal slaughtering by PETA, an American animal rights organization. This movement is for against the use of animal fur for production in things like clothes.

The WNBR is actually mainly about the fight against climate change and the use of carbon-emitting transportation like cars. In the following images, these nude protests are also for battling climate change. But the location of the glacier or the surrounding shrubbery is intuitively more meaningful and relatable to climate change than naked people riding bikes. Now, as a counter argument, you could say in these select images of the WNBR, there are words and phrases like “one less car, ride bare for clean air, no fuel used” explicitly painted onto the protesters and this helps to describe why they are naked to onlooking bystanders. However, many footages of the WNBR show that not all of the bike riders explicitly label on themselves for why they are riding a bike in public naked.

The protest strategy of using public nudity is quite a peculiar choice for protesting the use carbon-emitting transportation like cars. The meaning of the message behind the World Naked Bike Ride can certainly be more transparent and clear to onlooking bystanders.

By definition, the World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) movement  is “an international clothing-optional bike ride in which participants plan, meet and ride together on human-powered transport to deliver a vision of a cleaner, safer, body-positive world.” The bike rides take place all over the world in various select locations. I am interested in the WNBR, specifically the protest tactic of full or partial nude bike riding. Although the main reason behind the movement is for environmental causes like global warming, I think the tactic of naked bike riding can initially be misinterpreted by onlooking bystanders for other causes such as body-image issues and gender issues. The actual main aims of WNBR is “to promote bicycle transportation, renewable energy, recreation, walkable communities, and environmentally responsible, sustainable solutions to living in the 21st century. Participants celebrate the many benefits of a car-free lifestyle: reduced emissions, free parking, and overall a greater feeling of freedom.” I think the full or partial nudity is a protest tactic/strategy that is used in order to be more visually powerful and attention-drawing.  However, behind each specific bike ride, I believe each location is strategically chosen to promote the widest visibility possible. I think the use of clean-energy technologies, like bicycles, is applied well via the form of a bike ride. I think that once you understand the main motive for naked bike riding, which is for environment concerns, then the message does seem to line up with clearly stated goals. I think the locations and times for the naked bike rides are all chosen purposefully in order to ensure maximum public visibility and awareness.

I am mainly focused on the strategy of naked bike riding. I think it is visually very powerful and is very abnormal to see in public. I am proposing my main argument to be that the World Naked Bike Ride could be misinterpreted for various causes, such as gender issues and body-image issues. I am planning on utilizing audio that will clearly state what the WNBR stands for, which is for clean transportation and a carbon-neutral society. I plan on using visually captivating images and video to show how the bike rides can differ; for example, some may have full nudity, all-male, or both.

The argument for the naked bike ride protest strategy is to promote clean, “natural” transportation by going full or partial nude bike riding. To use visually provocativeness to more effectively spread awareness of our protest’s message, which is about promoting environmentally-friendly, carbon-neutral methods of transportation. I think this protest strategy is effective. I think that nude bike riding is a very powerful and effective way to grab a large amount of people’s attention. I think the visually-powerful, controversial method of public nudity helps illustrate the meaning of promoting clean transportation. For this protest strategy, I think there is definitely high risk involved. The protest participants definitely convey passion for their cause. They are willing to expose themselves in public in order to draw attention for the movement. As for clarity, the protest can be misinterpreted by bystanders. For certain bike rides, a majority of the riders were male so onlookers could have misinterpreted the protest for a gender-related issue. The protest could also be misunderstood for body-image issues. My main argument for this protest strategy is that although it is visually-suggestive and peculiar in nature, it is effective in achieving its goal, which is to spread awareness of its cause (global warming).