Students speak about poverty in Dallas

from The SMU Daily Campus

By: Gillian McWhirt, Contributing Writer, gmcwhirt@smu.edu

Students for a Better Society (SBS) and Students Promoting Awareness, Responsibility, and Citizenship (SPARC) united Wednesday at to promote poverty awareness. The organization provided information to students with a booth at the Flagpole.

The SBS Social Issues committee sponsored the event.

"Most people at SMU are not aware of the poverty rates in Dallas," Social Issues chair Vivian Constandy said. "Having a booth like this is important because this is not information that people seek out on their own, but everyone should be aware and know the realities of poverty surrounding SMU."

SBS was formed in the spring of 2005 by senior Michelle Wigianto. This organization allows students to come together and address many issues such as human rights and the environment.

Members of SBS and SPARC came together and passed out fliers, speaking about poverty in Dallas and Texas. They also had a map pointing out the percentage of people in the Dallas area living below the poverty line.

The map showed that 30 percent of the people in Oakcliff, 50 percent in West Dallas, 40 percent in East Dallas, 6 percent in University Park and 3 percent in Highland Park live below the poverty line. SBS and SPARC want to make people aware of these figures and to encourage them to get involved and help make a difference in their community.

"SMU and its students have a unique opportunity to address issues such as poverty that are surrounding our community," Michelle Wigianto said. "People should be educated on these issues and then able to act on them."

The members of SBS and SPARC want to make people aware of problems that are happening in the Dallas community.

These two groups want people to know it doesn't take a lot of time or work to make a difference in the community. Members of the organizations say that making people aware is the first step, and acting out to fix the problem is the second.

Students who wish to become involved in Students for a Better Society or Students Promoting Awareness, Responsibility, and Citizenship can go online at www.people.smu.edu/sbs or www.people.smu.edu/sparc for more information.