Instead of going to parties, some students will be sleeping outside this Friday night in cardboard boxes in the Pit.

Poverty Action Week emphasizes building relationships within the community — especially between students and some of the most marginalized community members. This week is Poverty Action Week, led by Homeless Outreach Poverty Eradication, a committee of the Campus Y.

Nearly a month after its new leadership took office, the Campus Y is beginning to establish a vision for a more inclusive social justice movement.

Facebook and ShamWow have a lot in common. Neither of these products would have been possible without their founders’ conviction and teamwork, venture capitalist Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande said. Deshpande, who spoke about social entrepreneurship Tuesday afternoon at the Campus Y, has a net worth of $7.6 billion.

Sprout, a new student-run business venture created by Nourish International, opened for business this week, delivering local produce to campus for participants once a week for a six-week season.

Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Center are focusing on the facts behind Amendment One, and they want the University to do the same.

Sipping tea and eating muffins, students debated student government’s capability to create real change.

UNC’s Human Rights Week begins today, a week of free events designed to promote dialogue about relevant human rights issues.

The Campus Y elected Mackenzie Thomas and Jagir Patel its next co-presidents Tuesday. With the win, voters chose a platform of strengthening committees versus one which emphasized the Campus Y’s role as a place of activism within the University.

Mackenzie Thomas and Jagir Patel have put together an impressive candidacy for the presidency of UNC’s Campus Y, and its members should elect them to lead the organization next year.

The swell of student opposition to proposed tuition hikes has been lead by four main organizations, each with different views of which tuition plan is best for the University and the student body.

The Campus Y has been an active player in tuition protests this year, but the level of future activism hinges on the race for its next co-presidents.

Members of four campus groups are looking forward to receiving $15,000, free building space and faculty advising for their own social innovation.

The Campus Y is returning to its social activism roots through its campaign against tuition increases.

To close the TEDxUNC conference Saturday, John McGowan issued a warning. If nothing came of the event, a sign would be put up at the FedEx Global Education Center that read, “In this spot in 2012, nothing happened,” the director of UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities said.

For more than 150 years, the Campus Y has been the nexus of social justice and innovation on this campus. Next week, the Y will take another step in its quest to become UNC’s home for social entrepreneurship when it announces the first class of teams accepted into the new Social Innovation Incubator.

It’s been almost two months since the Board of Trustees approved a 15.6 percent tuition hike to the dismay of dozens of student protesters lining the walls of the Carolina Inn.

The Human Rights Center has been offering programs for immigrants and the underprivileged since 2009, but a forced move could interrupt its services this spring.

The third floor of the Campus Y will soon be devoted to innovative ideas for social change.

“Poverty is not an excuse from but a reason for education.” Former UNC President Edward Kidder Graham wrote this in 1916, reminding us of the bedrock principles of accessibility and affordability upon which our “University of the people” is built.