Gonzaga University Specialized Recreation

A group of Gonzaga Students show their support for the end the r-word campaign.

Join us for Disability Awareness Week February 21st - February 24th! Here are the scheduled events:

Tuesday - Panel discussion (7-8:30 PM in Crosby Student Center)

Wednesday - TBD

Thursday - Movie viewing of Mozart and the Whale (7-9 PM in Jepson’s Wolff Auditorium)

Friday - Group photo wearing R-word awareness t-shirts (1 PM outside Crosby)

Additionally, GUSR student volunteers will be tabling in Crosby all week long from 10-2 to sell End the R-word shirts for $2 and to encourage others to sign the R-word pledge.

In case you missed the performance, here is a video of GUSR’s production of The Lion King on December 5th, 2011.

The snow is everywhere. This glistening white powder, while horribly inconvenient, has never looked more in place. It’s six o’clock and save for the light posts scattered around campus, there doesn’t seem to be any defense against the looming darkness hovering above the walkways. It’s picturesque, beautiful, but not necessarily ideal conditions for transportation, by foot or by car.

“Do you think the buses will be able to make it all the way up?”  

“I dunno, they did O.K. last week, but it might be harder tonight, it’s colder anyway.”

These two students speculate for another minute or so while walking towards college hall as the conversation reverts to the norm.

“Did you finish that paper for 508?” 

“Na, haven’t started actually. It’s gonna be a long night…whatever, it’ll be bad but I’ll get it done.”

They make their way up the stone steps and into the warmth of the oldest building on campus. On a typical winters evening at Gonzaga University, few students dare brave the frigid chill of the night, but a steady stream, maybe twenty-five or so have made it up the steps. These are not, however, your typical GU students. 

These are GUSR volunteers, and they leave the comfort of their homes in search of comfort of another kind, twice a week in college hall.

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Our parent institution has a new facebook page! Click the graphic above to check it out.

Image credit: Derek Cole

Footage from a Wednesday night (3.23) GUSR play rehearsal. Make sure to come and see “The Lion King,” on either Sunday, December 4th (7pm), or Monday, December 5th (7pm)! Tickets are $5, come early as space is limited. Performances will be held in the Cataldo Globe room on the Gonzaga University campus. 

• GU students, staff, and faculty took a giant leap towards inclusion and acceptance during the short week following Presidents day. Over three days between February 22nd and 25th (Classes were canceled Thursday due to weather), members of the Gonzaga community had the opportunity to sign a pledge discontinuing the use of the “R-word,” otherwise known as the derogatory term retard(ed). Last year, 279 community members signed the same pledge; in 2011 that number increased by nearly 100 signatures! Call it luck, promotion, or a new freshman class, call it whatever you want, the reality of a more socially conscious Gonzaga University cannot be overlooked.  True, the Gonzaga community as a whole may still have a great journey towards the total elimination of this disparaging and offensive word, but the first steps were made during Developmental Disabilities Awareness Week 2011.
  
  DDAW kicked off on Tuesday (2.22) with a free T-shirt campaign focused on raising awareness about the “R-word.” The 250 students, faculty, and staff who received shirts were asked to wear them on the upcoming Friday to promote the signing of the pledge (pictured above: a group of dedicated and painfully cold t-shirt wearers). Wednesday night featured a live concert at the Crosby student center, sponsored by Gonzaga University Specialized Recreation (GUSR) and the “R-word” campaign. Attendees were asked to watch and reflect upon Soeren Palumbo’s speech dedicated to the campaign (found here) after an introduction by GUSR coordinator Jessica Jacobson. Unfortunately a public showing of Autism: The Musical had to be postponed due to a school wide closure on Thursday, but this event will soon be rescheduled.
  
  The “R-word” means different things to different people. Some users claim “I don’t use it in that way,” or “I would never say that word to a person with a disability,” and that’s fair, that’s their perception. However, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail famously writes “Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere,” and we at GUSR consider using the word “retard(ed),” in any context, as a threat to the millions of people living with disabilities, often unable to share the way in which the use of the word continues to marginalize a specific community.  We urge all members of Gonzaga University to consider those affected, those without the ability to speak for themselves, whenever we think to use the “R-word.”
  
  It’s time to promote a new “R-word” here at Gonzaga: Respect.

“Way of the Heart” retreat 2011! Please click the photo above for more information.