Group: Hip-hop is 'ultimate solution'

With racial and sexual crimes occuring on college campuses across the United States, one nonprofit student organization believes hip-hop is the ultimate solution.\nThe Hip-Hop Congress Student Union, which has chapters at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and Brandeis University, is trying to make a change for the better at colleges nationwide.\nThe congress is for people who have an interest in hip-hop and who are curious about better understanding the genre.\nThe Hip-Hop Congress is scheduled to start on campus in February, although date has not been finalized. \nJunior Ron Gubitz, one of the founders of the Hip-Hop Congress at IU, said the organization plans to hold many events this year.\nGubitz said he wanted to bring the organization to IU after he transferred from USC.\n"The first show will be some time in March and we are hoping to bring in a big name artist with all the proceeds going to charity," Gubitz said.\nHe said one of the main goals of the congress is to reach out to the community and encourage and educate children about diversity.\n"The Hip-Hop Congress is a place where other organizations can represent their ideas and opinions to find out our differences and work them out as a plan to compromise for the better of common goals," Gubitz said. "The congress is what the students at Bloomington want to make out of it and not what Ron wants."\nThe group listed its intentions in its mission statement.\n"We are a forum for all people to express their opinions, ideas, hopes and actions, with the goal of changing the world into a better place," according to the Web site, www.hiphopcongress.com.\nThe Web site includes information on events, new chapters and hip-hop news.\nGreg Sheehan, a senior and vice president of campus relations at UMass at Lowell, said the congress is representative of all students.\nSheehan said the Hip-Hop Congress at UMass is planning to sponsor many events, from freestyle competitions to community service projects. He said that through these events the congress is advocating diversity and a common ground for all students to come together and that the broader goal of the hip-hop congress is to fulfill self-love and to promote expression. \n"The Hip Hop Congress is a feel for our generation," Sheehan said. "The most amazing thing about the congress is how many people want to get involved and it does not matter what their backgrounds are"