The Office of Residential Life is promoting cultural awareness, diversity and tolerance with the return of the television program, “30 Days Series” beginning Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. in the Richmond Basement Lounge.
The first show will be “Binge Drinking Mom,” which features a strait-laced mother who takes up binge-drinking in a desperate last-ditch attempt to show her teenage daughter how dangerous her excessive behavior can be.
That will be followed by “Straight Man in a Gay World” Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m. in West Dining Hall. It chronicles a 24-year old straight man who moves to San Francisco to live in what is known to have the largest gay community in the country.
After each episode at 8 p.m., Residence Hall Advisors (RAs) and faculty will lead discussions about the topic.
The shows will air ahead of time on TVUC to encourage more students to participate in the Tuesday discussions. Students from first-year residence halls will attend each show.
The show, created by Academy Award nominee Morgan Spurlock, who directed “Super Size Me,” explores what transformations someone can undergo within 30 days. Last year, more than 100 students and faculty came together to watch and discuss six episodes covering such topics as homophobia, religion and college binge drinking.
Joe Martel ‘08, a Mechanical Engineering major and West College head resident advisor, was instrumental in bringing the program to campus last year and has continued his charge.
“Diversity and multi-cultural awareness are paramount concerns in college,” said Martel. “By using faculty and administrators to facilitate discussion it will be more like an extension of the classroom and hopefully easier for students to join in.”
The following two hour-long episodes are scheduled to air this term, and the series will continue during winter term.
For more information, contact Martel at martelj@union.edu.