Despite the National Conference of Organized Resistance's 10 years at AU, it annually struggles to keep the conference on campus by making efforts to work with administrators and respect the AU community, NCOR Treasurer Carni Klirs said.
NCOR, an outgrowth of AU's Animal Rights Efforts club, held its first conference in 1998. The founders, former AU students Nisha Anand and Amanda Moeckel, wanted to create a dialogue for progressive politics on campus, said Andrew Willis, a 2003 School of International Service graduate and former member of the NCOR collective. The NCOR collective is a group of six or seven AU students who organize and moderate the conference every year.
In 2000, the conference changed the "Civil Disobedience" in its name to "Organized Resistance" in order to honor several pivotal events that occurred that year, Willis said.
Adam Eidenger, an AU graduate and activist, helped organize the mass protest at the IMF and World Bank rally in downtown D.C. on April 16, 2000, The Washington Post reported.
Later that year, students from several universities traveled to Philadelphia to protest at the National Republican Convention against the "corruption of the political system and the subordination of human rights to corporate rights," the Los Angeles Times reported.
The conference changed its name to embrace the broad range of emerging nonviolent groups, including animal liberation and pro-democracy movements, that no longer identified with the term "civil disobedience," Willis said.
Although some AU students said they do not feel NCOR's programs benefit the AU community and the participants' behavior pushes the bounds of the campus' hospitality, other students said the conference is a great opportunity to learn about issues not included in the scholastic agenda.
Dominic Ouellette, a junior in SIS, said the conference organizes a number of important seminars on topics that are not covered in the academic curriculum, such as "progressive parenthood."
Progressive parenthood is a means of raising children without exposing them to mainstream culture. For example, "not giving [children] gender-specific toys promotes individuality," Ouellette said.
However, NCOR does not advocate any one ideology, Willis said. Rather, it provides a forum and encourages the exchange of ideas, he said.
Among the chief complaints some students are making about this year's conference is the date when it is being held.
"NCOR is now held when students are away during spring break and no one can participate," Steve Meyer, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said.
However, March 9 through 11 was a date proposed by the AU administration to remedy problems such as the overcrowding of Mary Graydon Center and the consequent conflicts between AU students and outside participants that plagued the conference last year, Klirs said.
Josh Kramer, a sophomore in the School of Communication and president of the American University Club Council, said the conference is a great example of a student organization "because we know that every penny we give them will be spent in a responsible manner."
In an effort to improve the conference, the collective now sends a list of rules to participants along with their confirmation e-mail when they register.
Furthermore, St. Stevens Church in downtown D.C. has offered to house participants throughout the weekend of the conference, the NCOR collective said.
According to Klirs, this year's conference will include speakers from D.C.'s INCITE: Women of Color; St. Mary's College's Professor Sahar Shafqat on third-world feminism; and Simon Sidelo from Oaxaca, Mexico, who will talk about recent uprisings in Mexico.
