When animal rights veteran Julie Hartman came to Michigan State University for graduate school, she noticed something missing on campus. "When I decided to come to Michigan State, I looked for student groups, and noticed there wasn't an animal rights group," said Hartman, who's been involved with animal rights activism since she was an undergraduate at Northern Illinois University. "So I decided that there needed to be something going on." Along with a group of other MSU students, Hartman started the East Lansing Animal Rights Movement, or ELARM, in fall of 2001. ELARM became a registered student organization in March. "I just kind of gathered the few other activists that I had met and started getting this group going," said Hartman. Hartman started fighting for animal rights in high school when she became a vegetarian. "I don't even have a good story," said Hartman. "I was a big Beatles fan, and Paul McCartney is a vegetarian, and I was like, 'I want to try this!'" Hartman found a greater outlet for her activism as an undergraduate in college, where she dated the president of an animal rights group. College also introduced Hartman to veganism, the practice of abstaining from all animal products, including dairy, eggs, honey, and products tested on animals. "I try to have a cruelty-free household," said Hartman. Hartman said animals are treated cruelly in factory farms, laboratories, and entertainment venues, such as circuses and rodeos. She said she thinks it's unfair for humans to oppress other animals. "We can't just arbitrarily decide, here's the line in the sand, and here it's okay to be dominant and here it's not," said Hartman. Hartman said she thinks the struggle for animal rights is linked to other struggles. "I see all the different oppressions as being interwoven. So whether you're fighting about gender oppression, race oppression, species oppression, it's all the same fight," said Hartman. "As a woman, if I want to fight gender oppression, I have to fight every oppression I see, in order to be truly free." For Hartman, however, the fight wasn't always easy. "Growing up in rural Midwest, there aren't a lot of options," said Hartman. "It took a while to learn what else you could eat besides meat." Going vegan proved an even harder task. "My big weakness is cheesecake. And so a friend had taken me to a restaurant in Chicago that makes vegan cheesecake, and after I tasted that, I said, 'You know, if they can do this, I will go vegan,'" said Hartman. Since she moved, Hartman said living vegan has been easier. "East Lansing has been really great. There's the Food Co-op, Foods for Living, and Better Health. There's a lot of different choices, as well as a lot of ethnic grocery stores and restaurants." East Lansing is also the home of vegetarian restaurants like Gramma Bea's on Grand River, and the now-closed Green Cuisine, also on Grand River. Heather Buckley, a Lansing Community College student, opened Green Cuisine in 2001. "Vegans need to eat!" said Buckley, "plus having vegetarian restaurants around will expose people to the idea of veganism." Vegetarians and vegans in East Lansing can also live together, at an all-vegetarian co-op called Bower House. "It's a very vegan-friendly place to live," said Bower resident Meghan Elliot. Hartman said she's happy living a vegan life. "It's been easier since I moved than when I first started," said Hartman. "The longer you do it, it just becomes second nature."