About 30 students and faculty members came to agreement that every human needs to make a personal goal of being involved in the local and global communities.

Yesterday's discussion forum, "Will the Real Citizen Please Stand Up," covered topics from protesting and civic engagement to social responsibility.

The forum, part of Social Change Week, grew out of the Social Change Block Party two semesters ago. It featured eight speakers and encouraged input from the audience.

Takkeem Morgan, the event's director and Undergraduate Student Government (USG) vice president, opened the forum by offering the audience and speakers the opportunity to learn about the community and the various ways individuals can affect it.

"This discussion is linked to Martin Luther King Jr. Day because he stood for social change and we would like to discuss why students aren't involved in the community, with the time and resources available, why we don't use it to help the community," he said.

Chris Johnson, president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., a co-sponsoring organization, said he hoped to show students the importance of community involvement.

"We want to let people know how and where and when to get involved because though students want to, they may not know these things. Hopefully, it will become an annual event," he said.

Rosa Eberly, associate professor of communication arts and sciences and English, proposed numerous reasons why students are not involved.

"Undergraduates are misinformed by the corporate media or just uninformed. They focus on private interests, concern about employment and such, that could be affected if they speak out. So they don't. There is a sense of shame with education, we don't talk about religion and politics," she said.

Assata Richards (graduate-sociology) offered an alternative perspective on the situation.

"Students do engage, there is just a decline in contention. The topics are more abstract. There may be a particular issue, like Bush or anti-globalism, but we don't know how to fight that," she said.

Ed Smith (sophomore-economics) added to Richards' comments.

"People feel comfortable with their own aspect of life; the community is lost because we are trained to look out for ourselves. There is the notion that people can't do anything with one another," he said.

Eraka Rouzorondu, a Social Change Week speaker, said people need to join together and view themselves as members of the human race. Rouzorondu works with Ascension Productions, a not-for-profit "cultural and spiritual empowerment organization."

"Self-identification gives you responsibility. We are not consumers, but citizens and human beings, and as such we risk not being humane," she said.

Ashley Waddell (senior-comparative literature) encouraged students to combine academic studies with social projects.

"We need to motivate students to be part of issues that do not touch our own lives by connecting our classroom learning with our social obligations," she said.

The audience reacted with various ways to take action. Participants in the forum said they gained new insights and perspectives.

Toni Hoffman (junior-media studies) was one of the few silent observers, but said she was still affected by the event.

"It was really interesting and thought provoking. I'm ashamed and disappointed that out of 40,000 students only like 30 people came. Everyone needs to be aware of this," she said.