UW-Fond du Lac, a UW Oshkosh campus, is now officially designated a Fair Trade University by Fair Trade Campaigns. Fair trade is an economic system that ensures consumers that products were grown, harvested, crafted and traded in ways that improve lives and protect the environment.
UW-Fond du Lac joins nearly 270 active Fair Trade Campaigns across the country including the city of Fond du Lac, which received Fair Trade City designation in 2013 and UW Oshkosh, which became the first Fair Trade University in the United States in 2008.
Fair Trade Campaigns, a national initiative to engage university students in issues of global poverty, recognizes schools committed to educating students about the issues of fair trade and for sourcing fair trade products like coffee, tea and bananas in cafeterias, offices and events.
“We are proud to be named the 47th Fair Trade University in the U.S. and to bring awareness of fair trade to our campus community,” said UW-Fond du Lac Multicultural Club advisor and Associate Professor of World Languages Valerie Mumm-Jansen. “The students were active with events such as Fair Trade Your Finals, Fair Trade Bake Sale, Valentines and a Fair Trade Film Festival.”
The UW-Fond du Lac Multicultural Club and the UW-Fond du Lac Fair Trade University Committee partnered to build awareness and availability of fair trade in the community and at the university. Students worked diligently for several semesters to complete the necessary requirements to fulfill the campus designation.
“There are few things more exciting than seeing today’s youth come to understand the role that they can play as consumers in making the world a more fair and just place,” said Fair Trade Campaigns Director Billy Linstead Goldsmith. “To see them become not just conscious consumers, but advocates for Fair Trade, should challenge all of us to do the same.”
Contact
Laurie Krasin
920-929-1108
laurie.krasin@uwc.edu