Advocating for a cause these days is just a click away.
A widely used online social action website, Change.org, allows users to create and sign online petitions on a variety of subjects, including the environment, politics and local issues. In recent months, some petitions on the site have gained international attention and reached millions of signatures, such as one created by the family of Trayvon Martin petitioning law officials and the U.S. attorney general to prosecute shooter George Zimmerman.
Members of the UCLA community are no strangers to the website ““ a number of UCLA-related petitions have sprung up.
“Online petitioning is a great resource because it’s easy to spread through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and we don’t have to intrude in people’s lives like on Bruin Walk,” said Kelsey Ivan, a second-year environmental science student at UCLA and member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council Sustainability Committee.
Ivan started a petition on Change.org in February that urges UCLA to become a sustainable, fair trade university. The petition, which is part of a larger effort by USAC, as of press time had 297 signatures out of a goal of 500.
Although USAC’s fair trade initiative has engaged in other efforts including tabling and fliering on campus, online petitioning has yielded more tangible results, Ivan said.
Signing petitions online is easier for all parties involved, which may explain why some petitions have received more signatures online than they would otherwise, said Michael Suman, communication studies professor.
Petitions to fire UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero and save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden signatures have collected thousands of signatures, from UCLA students and people across the country.
Other petitions have campaigned to save the Saxon Steps near Gayley Avenue from demolition and salvage the Westwood location of Acapulco Mexican Restaurant and Cantina.
One petition asks Los Angeles district attorney Steve Cooley to hold UCLA accountable for a lab fire in 2008 that led to the death of a 23-year-old research assistant, a case that is currently in litigation. The petition gained signatures from as far as Italy and Brazil, said Judith Sweeney, creator of the petition and administrative specialist in the UCLA Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Each time a person signs a petition on Change.org, a copy of a standardized petition letter is sent directly to the petitioned party ““ in this case, the district attorney, Sweeney said.
Getting the required number of signatures, however, is the first step. Petition creators can then submit it to the entity involved with the issue to encourage tangible changes. Others choose to use the petitions as an educational tool.
Steve Ritea, a UCLA spokesman, said that while online petitions have fostered a medium for students to get their voices heard, the concept behind petitions has stayed the same over the years.
“(The administration) values all opinions and (Change.org) is one way for people to express them,” Ritea said. “But petitions themselves are nothing new ““ this is just one way to circulate them.”
Students who sign these petitions can track the initiative’s progress by returning to the site and monitoring the number of signatures, whereas there is no real follow-up with these efforts in real life, international development studies student.
Simpson said she learned about several petitions through friends and social networking websites like Facebook. After seeing the petition for USAC’s fair trade initiative on her Facebook newsfeed, she clicked the “sign” button.
Simpson said online petitions are more effective at spreading information because the results can be more easily viewed by the people participating.
She said she has also been informed on various issues through reading about them online, and tends to trust the online sources more.
“We get so many requests on Bruin Walk it’s hard to tell what’s legitimate and what’s not,” she said. “But when you see it online and see that it’s something you believe in, you trust it more.”
Simpson said she cannot remember a time when she ever signed a paper petition out on campus, but remembers signing at least three online.
Alyssa Curran, a third-year geography/environmental studies student, has signed about 70 petitions in total on Change.org, on a variety of topics including gay rights, human trafficking and the environment. She said she believes in the power of the petitions to actually make a difference.
“The hope is definitely there that if we get thousands of signatures, people in charge will take notice,” Curran said. “But realistically it is more in the focus of awareness, and then it is for students to take it upon themselves to do more.”