IDC Student Day to focus on social responsibility

By HAVIV RETTIG
The Interdisciplinary Center's Student Union will hold its annual Student Appreciation Day celebrations Wednesday but with a new focus. The annual music-filled celebrations will, for the first time, be devoid of corporate sponsors and will feature social awareness advocacy organizations instead. "Student Day is a day of fun, but, instead of commercialism, it will also emphasize social responsibility," IDC President Amnon Rubinstein told The Jerusalem Post. "The Student Union's efforts to incorporate the two are part of the IDC's ethos of individual independence along with responsibility for the weak sectors of society." The day's festivities will include performances by IDC students along with famous Israeli rock bands, including Mashina and Shotei Hanevua. There will be an exhibition fair that will include food and activity booths. But alongside the fun, non-profit social organizations will be the honored guests, with booths and discussions aimed at getting students involved in working for social justice. "There will be many organizations in attendance," Student Union chairman Lior Tamsut told the Post. "Many of these grew out of the IDC itself, such as Kol Kore [a country-wide movement whose goal is to raise awareness for social issues among students]." Koah Latet, which helps the needy, and the IDC's Clinic for Quality Government, will be among groups presenting their causes to the IDC's students and staff. Herzliya Mayor and IDC student Yael German, who is studying for a Masters degree in Public Administration, will attend the event and discuss gender equality with students and faculty. In addition, the union has invited disadvantaged youth from the area to the event, "to let them see academia from the right side of the fence, to plant the seed," Tamsut said. "One of our goals is to show how much one person can do," Tamsut emphasized. "These organizations - non-profits started and run by private citizens - demonstrate that. "The goal is to create a socially responsible leadership," Tamsut added. "It is a vision we share with the faculty of the IDC: of social equality and social activism." All of which, for Rubinstein, "is summed up in the IDC's concept of 'liberty and responsibility.'"