By Aislinn Keely

Environmental issues and social justice issues go hand in hand, according to Lillian Round, FCRH ’20, co-president of Students for Environmental Awareness and Justice (SEAJ). The group aims to educate and empower the community to enact environmental reform, most recently by holding Fordham’s first Earth Week in the lead-up to Earth Day, celebrating the planet and shedding light on environmental and social justice issues.

The week addressed a wide range of issues, from responsible fashion to fossil fuel divestment. Events spanned the campus and the community, with campus-centric events like the pop-up thrift store Fordham Flea making sales in McGinley Lobby on Friday and a documentary screening in Rodrigue’s Coffee House on Thursday, to a Pelham Bay Park restoration trip on Tuesday and Prospect Park field trip to celebrate Earth Day itself.

The biggest event of the week was the club’s Earth Fair, which brought together Fordham clubs and community partners to educate students on sustainability issues. Initially, the club meant to hold the event on Edward’s Parade, but the rain forced them to move to the McGinley Ballroom. There, groups like Outdoors Club, Spes Nova and Food and Water Watch worked to educate students on different causes.

Gabrielle Perez, FCRH ’21, USG vice president elect of sustainability and member of SEAJ, said the week was a jumping off point to forming more community relationships. The club has plans to continue volunteering at Pelham Bay Park after seeing the community need.

“We’re planning on doing a lot more work with that park because Pelham Bay Park is the biggest park in the entire city, but they have one guy who is in charge of maintaining the grounds…so he really relies on volunteers,” she said.

SEAJ also plans to form a stronger relationship with Food and Water Watch, a group that advocates for clean food and water for all. Food and Water Watch is particularly focused on fossil fuel divestment, according to Round. They host “Call Cuomo Mondays,” a text service that reminds participants to call New York Governor

Andrew Cuomo to advocate for fossil fuel divestment every Monday.

“It’s cool to see them getting stuff done and they definitely expressed interest in working more with SEAJ,” said Round.

Earth Week was a big step for the group, according to Round, in part because the event was entirely coordinated by underclassmen.

“None of us have ever organized anything like this,” she said. “It was cool to see a group of underclassmen doing our thing.”

SEAJ has been an active club for years, but with Earth Week, the club is building momentum towards greater action on and around campus.

“SEAJ has been a thing for a while, but it really picked up this year I think,” said Round.

Arielle Brender, FCRH ’18, co-president of SEAJ, said the club has grown in the past year thanks to the new, younger faces.

“A new life has been breathed into SEAJ this year, and it’s more active than it’s ever been,” said Brender.

Round also said the club hopes to increase its visibility with Earth Week.

“People on campus are super apathetic to these issues and really don’t know about them, so we wanted Earth Week to be a presence and get people involved, get people to know what SEAJ is,” she said.

SEAJ itself is separate from United Student Government’s (USG) Sustainability Committee, although many students like Perez participate in both. The Sustainability Committee puts greater emphasis on Fordham-based initiatives, while SEAJ’s mission centers on education and cooperation with the community.

“The Sustainability Committee is part of the student government and we work with administrators to help Fordham implement more environmentally friendly, more sustainable practices and policies, and SEAJ is more focused on raising awareness in general of these issues among the student population. So they have different purposes, kind of, but we work closely together,” said Perez.

“But it’s also focused on educating the student body and getting the student body engaged with the Bronx, so it’s more of an environmental justice movement,” added Round.

SEAJ’s meetings give members a primer on a wide range of sustainability issues, with members signing up to educate the group on a different topic every week. This year’s topics have included mountain-top removal, a practice of removing mountain peaks to extract coal, plastic recycling and even zoochosis, the insanity-inducing effect of zoos on captive animals.

With the growing efforts of the new members, Brender said she is excited to see what the club brings to the Fordham community in the coming years.

“The Earth Week and Fordham Flea teams have really proven that all it takes to make a change is the assumption of responsibility,” she said. “Their efforts have been the impetus of a huge wave of change. I am really looking forward to checking up on their impact in the years to come.”