Progressive Classes, Spaces, and Student Organizations

Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Dis-Orientation Guide here.

Progressive Classes

• African American Studies (AFAM)
• Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS or WMNST)

Courses in the AFAM and the WGSS/WMNST departments are great opportunities to learn about topics related to the ongoing struggle for racial, gender, and economic justice, and any student, regardless of race, gender, sexuality, etc. is welcome to take these courses. As you’re scheduling classes with your advisor in the coming semesters, ask how you can fit an AFAM or WGSS/WMNST course into your class schedule!

While these courses are more progressive than most at the university, it is important to note that you should engage with the class material critically. Course content may not be centered in revolutionary, anti-capitalist politics depending on the course and the professor. Though both of these academic departments have been established through mass movements, which were led by racially and gender-oppressed people and their allies, Penn State Administration still does what they can to conceal revolutionary, anti-capitalist history and conclusions in course material.

Progressive Spaces

These are spaces where a fair amount of progressive students spend their time studying, eating, and socializing. *While these offices are at the mercy of PSU Admin, many of the students and staff found there are sympathetic to the ongoing struggles for racial, gender, and economic justice on campus.

• State College House Show Scene
• Paul Robeson Cultural Center (PRCC)*
• United Socialists’ Radical Book Stand
• Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity (CSGD)*
• Webster’s Café and Bookstore

Progressive Student Organizations

• United Socialists at PSU
• Students for Justice in Palestine
• Goth Club
• Asylum Music Club
• Student’s Restorative Justice Initiative

There are many Caucuses (Black, Latino, APIDA, MENA, Lionpride…) that you can join to find community around a shared identity as well.

Read the full Fall 2024 SCDS Dis-Orientation Guide here.