There have been several recent racist incidents on local university campuses and in Ann Arbor. That, combined with all the troubling news across the country and around the world, made Eastern Michigan University professor Lolita Cummings-Carson decide she wanted to get students involved in performing random acts of kindness to combat evil with good.
89.1 WEMU'S Lisa Barry visited her EMU classroom and joined students as they walked around campus looking for ways to share something positive.
Professor Cummings-Carson began the random acts of kindness effort at the beginning of the semester and students have enjoyed many positive experiences doing thoughtful things for fellow students and co-workers.
She says by being good to everyone and being intentional, they are combating acts of hate with acts of love.
Since she's teaching a social media class, conduct an act of kindness and tweet about it using the hashtags #campuskindness, #emusocialites, and #eaglekindness to tie it to EMU Eagles and Eagles Fly Higher and hopes to spread effort to campuses across the country.
She herself has been finding opportunities to show kindness to others and recently complimented five people in five minutes receiving positive reactions.
Another student talks about giving someone her parking space on the EMU campus. Another baked cupcakes to make her co-workers feel better. Professor Cummings-Carson says even though she will not be teaching the social media class after this semester, she plans to continue her positive efforts anyway she can to spread her message of kindness and creating a supportive community, as far and as wide as she can.
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— Lisa Barry is the host of All Things Considered on WEMU. You can contact Lisa at 734.487.3363, on Twitter @LisaWEMU, or email her at lbarryma@emich.edu
