The Boston College Career Center recently hosted information sessions and on-campus interviews conducted by Grassroots Campaigns, a self-admitted progressive organization that limits its work to liberal-leaning groups in order to affect change. The sessions were held in Gasson and spanned two days.
In an e-mail circulated by the Student Recruiting office, Grassroots Campaigns explained that they were “teaming up with advocacy groups and progressive organizations to tackle the unprecedented problems facing our nation.” These advocacy groups, past and present, include organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Democratic National Committee, and the League of Conservation Voters.
It is important, however, to understand the beliefs of the progressive movement in the United States. It began as a movement to cure the ills of society produced by the Industrialization of the late 19th century. Progressivism was founded on the belief that man had the power to cure the all the evils of society. They believed that government should play an important role in bringing about equality for all members of society, which is a belief that Progressives still hold.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a leading progressive, and he is mostly attributed with making Progressivism a separate movement in the minds of the general public, instead of being associated with general the liberal movement. Progressives today are considered to be more liberal, or self-admittedly, socialistic than traditional liberals.
Much like the classic progressives in the last 100 years, Grassroots, in an effort to motivate students into attending their interviews, explained that, “We have the opportunity to remake America, but it will be up to us to ensure that President Obama and our leaders in DC work to restore our civil and human rights, build a clean energy future and work towards ending global poverty.”
The groups Grassroots is involved with represent a certain left-leaning viewpoint, which angered some more traditional students. Many felt that a group intimately partnered with an organization such as Planned Parenthood should not be permitted to recruit on a Jesuit campus.
When faced with a question about diversity in the groups and viewpoints the Career Center hosts, Jessica Chance, an Assistant Director at the Career Center, responded that they try to represent diversity as best they can, by attempting to accommodate students with differing beliefs. Chance also mentioned that the Center works to make certain that the organizations they host are “not leaning towards one direction.”
The Career Center does not list a future recruitment by conservative organizations in order to represent diversity amongst the groups it hosts.
