A group of students stood on the College 9/John R. Lewis stage. Together, they moved as one, mimicking the metamorphosis of a monarch butterfly. Another group embodied a gathering of bees, exhibiting how a hive can join together to keep out predators.

SOMeCA’s Student Organization Leadership (SOL) Council hosted the “Dream it, Build it, Organize Our Power” event on April 18. Tiffany Dena Loftin and Wisdom Cole, the event’s speakers, said this activity was all about biomimicry — how students can build community by following nature’s example.

Students and faculty gather in the College 9/John R. Lewis Multipurpose Room and listen intently as Loftin emphasizes the need for critical connections and the mobilization of student leaders.

“The things you were all demonstrating by putting yourself out there,” Cole said. “By being radical monarch [butterflies], by being bees that are down to get stinged, by making sure that you are actually showing and communicating, you are […] sharing a message.”

Loftin and Cole emphasized the collective power of students and student leaders. They spoke about topics including book bans, voter suppression, and unsafe on-campus transportation infrastructure. The speakers stressed that to create meaningful change, student leaders must learn to build strong communities and organize.

“This fight is about changing people’s hearts and minds — I don’t want us to lose sight of that,” Loftin said. “Whatever campaign you are working on, whether it be TAPS, whether it be housing, whether it be diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, whether it be funding, whether it be lowering the cost of tuition, you are organizing around these problems by building relationships with each other on campus.”

Loftin, a 2011 Oakes and Politics department alumna, has worked as national director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Youth and College Division and now serves as the campaign lead for the Delta Flight Attendants Labor Union. She has also taught SOMeCA courses, including “Mindful Collaboration: Cultivating Radical Exchange” and “Transformative Leadership & Social Change” at UC Santa Cruz.

Cole, a 2015 Oakes and Chemistry department alumnus, is the current national director of the NAACP Youth and College Division, and former field and state conference organizer for the Afrikan Black Coalition.

“By yourself, [you] can do nothing, but with an organization, you can do anything. So join an organization, start an organization, be part of an organization,” Cole said in an interview with City on a Hill Press after the event. “[Start by] understanding what the three most important issues to your community are, and from there you can talk about building an issue-based campaign to address those needs and see what is going to allow you to actually be able to achieve the win.”

Students and faculty gather in the College 9/John R. Lewis Multipurpose Room and listen intently as Loftin emphasizes the need for critical connections and the mobilization of student leaders.

The speakers underscored the importance of “critical connections,” or making time to get to know what students want and need, as a core piece of organizing. The event motivated student leaders, as noted by third-year Aiko-Bliss Juliet Ponce, who has been a part of student organizations on campus centered around activism, such as TWANAS Press and MEChA.

“[The event] was so fruitful to my understanding of how to continue my impact here at the university,” said Ponce. “It takes me out of my position as a leader and instead puts me into the mindset of the actual members in the community that I’m trying to serve.”

Attendee of the event and Student Union Assembly (SUA) Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Leslie Marquez said “critical connection” spoke to her role in student government.

“Going back to community is really important,” said Marquez. “We have to work together and nothing can be done alone […] It has to be students and [student leaders] collectively making the change happen.”

While community building is important, Loftin and Cole emphasized that no message is complete without a solution. Elections cannot be the only way of completing a movement’s goals, but voting remains essential.

“I need you all to know that election day is November 5th, not just that it’s in November,” Loftin said. “The students in your organization, the peers in your class, the students in your dormitory, the people on the bus that ride with you, […] they need to know. November is not a sufficient answer, November 5th is the answer.”

Throughout the room, student facilitators, who assisted in small group discussions, were inspired by the event’s energy and the conversations that ensued.

“The most impactful part of the event for me was seeing the students in my community be so passionate about the work that we do and uplift each other in the process of creating social change,” said Reva Samant, a student facilitator for the event. “Creating change is hard, but seeing a room full of people who are as passionate as you are to bring the difference we need is really inspiring and gives me a lot of hope.”

The evening closed with Cole directing an empowering call-and-response chant by Assata Shakur, meant to excite the crowd to fulfill the discussions they had during the event and work towards community organizing after leaving the space. The chant was repeated three times, growing louder and more encompassing.

“It is our duty to fight for our freedom, it is our duty to win,” Cole and the audience chanted together. “We must love and support each other, we have nothing to lose but our chains!”

Additional reporting by Caly Plowman.