Now that you’ve arrived on campus and gone through orientation, it’s time to learn about the things your OL probably wasn’t allowed to tell you. Specifically, we mean the ways that students have power to create tangible change at Northeastern and beyond. There is a long-standing misconception that student organizers and activists are only here to complain about everything wrong with their university, when in reality, we are the ones putting the work in to make Northeastern the best it can be.  The issues we are organizing around are not unique to Northeastern, as almost every major college or university is burdened by these. What does make Northeastern unique, however, is our diverse coalition of student-led groups that dedicate their energy to bettering the institution and its impact on the surrounding communities. The groups featured in this guide organize against things such as exploitation of campus workers, the gentrification of Roxbury, and the military-educational-industrial complex.

Universities rely on students (and our tuition money) in order to operate, and we can leverage this unique power to create the changes we want to see at our school.  With this guide, we want to shine a light on the incredible ways that students, past and present, are making revolutionary and lasting changes on campus and beyond. We hope that the information presented in these articles will inspire you to get involved in current campaigns for justice at Northeastern, and to start organizing new campaigns around the issues that you care about.  We also want to give a voice to members of our campus community whose concerns deserve to be heard, because acknowledging where there are problems at Northeastern is the first step to eventually solving them. Lastly, this guide is intended to connect you all with resources, tips, and a community of social justice-oriented students to make your time here the best it can be. From everyone involved in writing this year’s disorientation guide: we hope that you learn something valuable in these pages, and we can’t wait to meet and work with the next generation of student organizers and activists at Northeastern!