The American Civil Liberties Union now has a chapter at Ohio State.

The chapter was founded last summer by Eric Samuels, a sophomore in political science and international studies, who is the president of the club.

“It’s a great way to get issues out, and let students know that they have rights,” he said.

The ACLU club is in its beginning stages at OSU. Since its first meeting in October, the club has focused on organizational matters and the recruitment of new members along with trying to coordinate programs, Samuels said.

“We are hoping to work together with other campus groups and organizations, such as Planned Parenthood and Amnesty International and use that as a method of getting information available and possibly recruiting new members,” he said.

Some programs suggested by Samuels are brown bag lunches with professors – where students and professors can converse and talk about issues – and showings of movies about civil liberties like Malcolm X.

Of the 15 schools in Ohio that have an ACLU club the OSU club has proved to be one of the more permanent groups with a strong membership base, said Dana Textoris, Education coordinator for ACLU Ohio.

The ACLU club works directly with the ACLU of Ohio, Samuels said.

“We offer assistance to help students take action,” Textoris said. “We’ve expanded programs at the university level, which has grown into the young leaders initiative, which offers assistance to students who want to get their school involved with the ACLU. These clubs are really a sounding board for their university.”

The ACLU is a national organization, founded in 1920, whose mission is to preserve First Amendment rights; the right to equal protection under the law regardless of race, sex, religion, or national origin, the right to due process and the right to privacy.

“I am really interested in the protection of freedom of speech and protection of vital human rights. I think the ACLU club is good to have on campus,” said Pat Brown, a sophomore in English.

The ACLU also works to extend the rights to segments of the population that have traditionally been denied rights. These include American Indians, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, women, people with disabilities and the poor.

The ACLU has offices in every state and a total of 400,000 members and supporters nationwide.

Membership in the club has been on the rise since the implementation of the Patriot Act.

Doug Nartker, a junior in international studies of Latin America and treasurer of the ACLU club, joined to get involved and learn more about issues that people at OSU are worried about.

He voiced concern over the Defense of Marriage Act and its definition of marriage being a union between a man and a woman.

“I really think this pushes us back,” Nartker said. “I want to be able to marry and have a family.”

For more information on the ACLU, students can contact Eric Samuels or look over the ACLU Ohio Web site at ACLUOhio.org.