What is Vox? Here’s the President to answer all your questions!
HC: What is your position on the Vox board?
Zoe Michas: President.
HC: Why did you initially get involved with Vox?
ZM: I got involved with Vox first semester of my freshman year and I’ve been really interested in Planned Parenthood and the things that they do because my mom was super into Planned Parenthood before. I mean, she still is, but before I went to college and is always reposting stuff on Facebook saying “I support Planned Parenthood”. I just saw it as something that I wanted to learn more about and help out with. So I went to the first Vox meeting and they told us a little more about what Planned Parenthood is and what they do. I was hooked from there and then I joined the E-board my second semester.
HC: That’s cool! What would you say are the main goals your e-board wants to achieve in Vox?
ZM: Obviously since we’re voices for Planned Parenthood we want to discuss the services that Planned Parenthood offers, what they are, allow the students to interact with the people who work at the local Planned Parenthood, we want to make it clear that, you know, Planned Parenthood doesn’t just offer abortion, there’s so much more than that. But beyond that, our club really wants to, you know, create student advocates around campus for reproductive rights and sexual health. We want to do a lot of promotion for sex positivity, Free Condom Fridays and stuff. So I would say that the main goals of the club are probably standing with Planned Parenthood and explaining what they do; promoting sex positivity around campus and creating student activism, whether that’s in the surrounding community or just on campus.
HC: You talked a little bit about this, but besides supporting Planned Parenthood, what other types of things do you want to get out there?
ZM: Obviously we want to support Planned Parenthood a lot because we are Voices for Planned Parenthood, but we want to make it clear that Vox is so much more than just supporting Planned Parenthood. We want to help all Skidmore students, obviously the surrounding community too, but right now we are really focused on helping our community here at Skidmore by offering events: movie screenings, Free Condom Friday, speakers, promoting both reproductive justice and reproductive rights and sexual health.
HC: The last question- your club is very famous for Free Condom Friday. Can you talk about the idea behind that and the message behind it, other than safe sex?
ZM: I couldn’t even tell you when Free Condom Friday started but it was around before I got here my freshman year, and I remember going and helping out at the first Free Condom Friday of my first semester and, you know, its really, obviously, to promote safe sex, but also sex positivity and to give students availability to condoms and lube and dental dams and female condoms, and also if they don’t want to take things like that students can take Planned Parenthood chapstick, or just candy and come and interact with us, and show that Vox is an active part of our community. I think a message besides safe sex is just sex positivity on campus because we are super lucky because a lot of schools don’t offer services like Free Condom Friday. They might get condoms at a wellness center or something, but not a lot of people allow student organizations to table their dining hall atrium on Chicken Finger Fridays and hand out condoms, so I think it’s great that Skidmore allows us to do that and that we can give students free access to all these supplies.
HC: Is there anything else you want our readers to know?
ZM: I have a lot of passion for Vox and the things that we do, and I think that Vox is for everybody. Just like Planned Parenthood isn’t just for girls, it’s for LGBTQ people, and also for men, and I want people to know that Vox is for everybody, and at the state of our nation right now, obviously, we really want to help out our community and support reproductive justice and learn more about that and support sex positivity on campus, and teach people about sexual health and what that means. And I’m happy to be a part of that and teaching people about that.
HC: Thank you.
ZM: No problem.