tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/student-activism-10593/articlesstudent activism – The Conversation2023-10-19T14:31:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2154652023-10-19T14:31:46Z2023-10-19T14:31:46ZIsrael and Palestine: views of students and youth activists shouldn’t be dismissed – they have shaped the conversation for years<p>University campuses have long been hubs of political activism. As young people form their own opinions away from their parents, many act passionately for causes they believe in. This includes the situation in Israel and Palestine, a regular feature of student debate in the US, UK and across Europe for decades.</p>
<p>This latest, brutal round of fighting between Israel and Hamas has heightened campus tensions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/13/us-campuses-in-uproar-as-israel-palestine-conflict-exposes-divide">dramatically</a>.</p>
<p>Jewish students have said <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/as-a-jewish-student-at-oxford-i-fear-for-my-safety-c52qprrqs">they fear for their safety</a> due to incidents of antisemitism on campus. Others have reported feeling let down by university leadership for <a href="https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/26241">vague statements</a> about the conflict. The UK’s education minister, Gillian Keegan, has written to <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/keegan-writes-v-cs-over-concerns-jewish-students-welfare">university vice-chancellors</a> in England about concern for the welfare of Jewish students. </p>
<p>Palestinian students have also expressed concerns about <a href="https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/brismes-statement-on-the-attack-on-free-speech-on-uk-campuses">restrictions on their speech</a> when it comes to supporting Palestinian liberation. Students at SOAS University of London were <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/17/london-university-temporarily-suspends-students-gaza-rally/">temporarily suspended</a> following a Gaza solidarity rally. While SOAS said the suspension was due to the students’ conduct during the rally and not the rally’s message, the SOAS Palestine Society declared this a “targeting act of political repression”.</p>
<p>University leadership often struggles to balance student safety and free speech on such a polarising issue, leading to inflammatory headlines. But this should not be a reason to dismiss campus debate. Students and young people have always been important in shaping the conversation on Israel and Palestine.</p>
<h2>The history of youth activism on Israel-Palestine</h2>
<p>Associations of Jewish youth in <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/he-x1e24-alutz-2">Europe and the US</a> moved with the first major wave of Jewish immigration between 1881 and 1903 to the British Mandate of Palestine, to work the land and build a Jewish state. Later, the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/4/11/what-palestinians-can-teach-us-about-popular-resistance">first Palestinian intifada in 1987</a>, a largely nonviolent uprising, was mainly formed of children and teenagers. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pech.12162">I have researched</a> the rise of Israeli-Jewish anti-occupation activism over the last two decades. Until the turn of the millennium, liberal Zionist groups in Israel were the largest and most vocal element of the Israeli peace movement. They called for a two-state solution for the security of Israel.</p>
<p>A turning point came in 2000 as these groups lost traction, unsure how to respond to the increasingly violent <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-al-aqsa-remains-a-sensitive-site-in-palestine-israel-conflict-215294">Al-Aqsa</a> intifada. In their place emerged more radical groups, drawing on Palestinian narratives of anti-occupation, apartheid and settler colonialism.</p>
<p>Driven by younger Israeli activists, this more radical faction included groups such as <a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/uri-gordon-anarchists-against-the-wall">Anarchists Against the Wall</a>, a direct action group formed in Israel in 2003. Their members – including students and university lecturers – joined Palestinian activists in resisting the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-middle-east-jerusalem-israel-west-bank-2ce5d9956b729ad6169c880d00068977">separation barrier</a> dividing the West Bank from Israel. </p>
<p>This radical faction’s numbers have never been more than a few hundred. They are marginalised by Israeli society and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-protest-evictions-police-violence-in-east-jerusalem/">subjected to police and army violence</a>. But they have had a notable influence in normalising anti-occupation sentiment within the peace movement in Israel.</p>
<p>In 2009, Israeli activists initiated sit-ins and demonstrations with Palestinians who were threatened with eviction from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of <a href="https://www.972mag.com/the-rise-of-the-sheikh-jarrah-protest-movement-as-told-by-a-veteran-activist/">Sheikh Jarrah</a>. Some of these activists were students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a short bus ride from the neighbourhood. </p>
<p>Young Jews in the UK have also taken more progressive views on Israel and Palestine. A recent <a href="https://www.jpr.org.uk/reports/conflict-israel-and-gaza-what-do-jews-uk-think">report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research</a> found that more secular, younger, university-educated respondents were more likely to be critical towards Israel than older, more religious or non-university educated Jews. </p>
<p>The anti-occupation voice of the younger generation is evident in the emergence of progressive Jewish groups such as Yachad, formed in 2011, and Na'amod in 2018.</p>
<h2>Students and radical activism</h2>
<p>Professor Hank Johnston, a leading scholar of social and political movements, explains that younger members of social movements are often more militant and passionate in their demands and tactics. This is true regardless of their ideological underpinnings.</p>
<p>Young activists are <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/9/3/55">willing to take greater risks</a> for the cause they are supporting. They may not have the material resources of the older generations, but they have more disposable time, energy and ability to mobilise others.</p>
<p>As I argue <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/israeli-peace-movement-9780755643707/">in my book</a> on the changing Israeli peace movement, it is often the more radical groups who mobilise quicker in periods of tension. In doing so, they set the agenda, influencing moderate groups to take up more confrontational ideas. </p>
<p>For example, members of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace held illegal meetings with members of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/21/uri-avnery-obituary">in the 1980s</a>. These activists called for negotiations with Palestinians long before liberal Zionist groups mobilised under the banner of a two-state solution.</p>
<p>Since the second intifada (2000-2005), more radical Israeli groups framed the situation in Israel and Palestine as apartheid. Only years later did other Israeli human rights groups, such as <a href="https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid">B'Tselem</a>, officially follow suit.</p>
<p>These radical groups and viewpoints, in part driven by young people, have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pech.12162">influenced the narratives in Israel</a>. They are why campus tensions around the conflict are important to pay attention to. The historic significance of young voices suggest they could shape the agenda for the future.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-updates-on-the-conversations-coverage-of-the-conflict-215285">Israel-Hamas war: updates on The Conversation's coverage of the conflict</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leonie Fleischmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An expert looks at the history of youth activism on Israel and Palestine.Leonie Fleischmann, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2057062023-05-17T13:23:49Z2023-05-17T13:23:49ZSudan’s university students have a long history of political activism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526550/original/file-20230516-26779-zx2pv3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Student activists have been galvanising forces in several popular uprisings.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ebrahim Hamid/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The latest fighting to <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/04/whats-behind-fighting-sudan">erupt in Sudan</a> has plunged the nation into a fresh crisis. Since 15 April, conflict between the Sudan Armed Forces and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces has left nearly 800 people dead and forced about a million others to seek sanctuary abroad. It has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/27/sudan-conflict-why-is-there-fighting-what-is-at-stake">disrupted daily life</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/12/communal-violence-and-civilian-deaths-in-sudan-fuel-fears-of-widening-conflict">destroyed property</a> and <a href="https://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2023/04/violence-shuts-sudans-universities-again-countries-consider-evacuating-students/">shut down universities</a>. </p>
<p>It is adult military generals who have created this political abyss. I believe that the country’s young people – particularly its university students – symbolise Sudan’s hopes of reconstructing its future. </p>
<p>I am an academic researching higher education, education in post-conflict contexts and comparative national systems of education. I have also served in government in South Sudan, as the director general for universities in the Ministry of Higher Education. As such, and given my own experiences as a student activist, I have a deep interest in the role of university students in Sudan.</p>
<p>It would not be the first time that university students have come to the forefront to drive political change. They have done so four times before: once in the struggle to gain independence from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Sudan/The-British-conquest">colonial Britain</a> in 1956 and thrice as the Sudanese people stood up to military regimes – in 1964, 1985 and 2019.</p>
<p>Sudan’s university students have not only spearheaded revolutions. They also contributed to a thriving campus culture that has given voice to multiple political views, ethnicities and religious beliefs. No matter the students’ individual differences, the four uprisings I discuss here were driven by something they had in common: the desire for Sudan to be democratically ruled.</p>
<h2>Liberation struggles</h2>
<p>Universities play <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-73575-3_3">various societal roles</a>. In Sudan, tertiary institutions have historically had two main functions. First, as with any other African country immediately after colonial rule ended, they are responsible for socio-economic development. They supply both the private and public labour forces. Civil servants were <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44947360">particularly important</a> immediately after the British ceded control.</p>
<p>Second, Sudan’s university students have played a key role in liberation struggles. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Sudan/The-growth-of-national-consciousness#ref48958">Graduates General Congress</a> began its life in the 1940s as an association for alumni of Gordon Memorial College. This institution would ultimately become the University of Khartoum, located in Sudan’s capital city. </p>
<p>The congress’s members articulated calls for independence. They galvanised many other Sudanese to push for the withdrawal of the British colonial state.</p>
<p>After independence, universities in Sudan continued on the same political path. Students led three popular uprisings that toppled military dictatorships and restored civilian and democratic rule. </p>
<p>University of Khartoum students organised and drove the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/world/africa/echoes-of-an-arab-revolution-that-rocked-sudan-circa-1964.html">October 1964 revolution</a>. This ended <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/09/obituaries/ibrahim-abboud-82-was-sudan-s-leader-from-1958-to-1964.html">General Ibrahim Abboud’s</a> eight-year presidency. Students – including myself, an undergraduate at the time – were also key players in 1985, when protests and a civil disobedience campaign deposed president <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/05/obituary-jaafar-nimeiri">Jaafar Mohammed Numeiri</a>.</p>
<p>Most recently, university students and academics were <a href="https://theconversation.com/academics-have-shaped-sudans-political-history-and-may-do-it-again-115232">at the forefront</a> of the popular uprising in 2019 that ended Omar al-Bashir’s rule after 30 years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/academics-have-shaped-sudans-political-history-and-may-do-it-again-115232">Academics have shaped Sudan's political history, and may do it again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Khartoum at the centre</h2>
<p>The University of Khartoum, in various iterations, has been central to all these protests. <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/university-khartoum">The institution</a> was originally a satellite college of the University of London. It was established as a public university at independence in 1956. </p>
<p>Two other regional universities, Gezira and Juba (in what is today the capital of South Sudan), were opened in the 1970s. The 1990s saw what scholars <a href="https://fanack.com/wp-content/uploads/Higher-Education-Revolution.pdf">have called</a> the “higher education revolution”, when the growing demand for tertiary education led to 26 new institutions being created in 1991 alone.</p>
<p>Most of these universities are in Khartoum. This geographical concentration consolidates students’ power. It means they are physically well placed to collaborate and coordinate with other powerful groupings in society, like <a href="https://timep.org/2022/10/17/building-democratic-institutions-in-sudan-amid-authoritarian-rule/">trade unions</a>, to push for political change.</p>
<p>Other tertiary institutions in Khartoum are influenced by the University of Khartoum’s political and social activism. They have emerged as melting pots in an ethnically and linguistically diverse nation. For many students, particularly those from the periphery like Darfur in the far west, the former southern Sudan, the easterners and the Nubians in the far north, university campuses provide the first meeting point with those of other backgrounds.</p>
<p>When I spend time on Sudanese university campuses, I frequently overhear ideological and political debates. These thrive side by side with academic work. </p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>It is not clear what lies ahead for Sudan. But if history is any indication, university students will be at the heart of civilian resistance – and could once again play a crucial role in pushing for democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205706/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kuyok Abol Kuyok does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sudan’s university students have played a key role in liberation struggles.Kuyok Abol Kuyok, Associate Professor of Education, University of JubaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1821972022-04-29T21:08:06Z2022-04-29T21:08:06ZStudents lead more public schools to close for Islamic holidays<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460582/original/file-20220429-14592-n08s9e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C22%2C7337%2C4880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Several school districts across the country will close in observance of Eid, a holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/writing-in-a-notebook-royalty-free-image/871328144">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Some public school districts across the nation will be closed on <a href="https://www.mtvernoncsd.org/site/default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=20&ModuleInstanceID=2255&ViewID=6446EE88-D30C-497E-9316-3F8874B3E108&RenderLoc=0&FlexDataID=10277&PageID=33">Monday, May 2, 2022</a>, or <a href="https://www.philasd.org/blog/2022/04/28/eidalfitr/#:%7E:text=On%20Tuesday%2C%20May%203rd%2C%202022,to%2Dsunset%20fasting%20of%20Ramadan.">Tuesday, May 3, 2022</a>, in observance of the Islamic holiday <a href="https://isna.net/month-of-ramadan/">Eid al-Fitr</a>, a festive celebration marking the end of the month of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-ramadan-means-to-muslims-4-essential-reads-116629">Ramadan</a>, a month of fasting observed by Muslims worldwide. In the following Q&A, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=COz6BG8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Amaarah DeCuir</a>, an education researcher who specializes in issues of concern to Muslim students, illuminates some of the forces that are moving more school districts to close in observance of the Islamic holiday.</em></p>
<h2>How common is it for public schools to close for Islamic holidays?</h2>
<p>When New York City <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/04/new-york-city-muslim-holidays-public-schools">announced in 2015</a> that it would close its public schools in observance of Islam’s two most sacred holidays, it became the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/nyregion/new-york-to-add-two-muslim-holy-days-to-public-school-calendar.html">first big-city school district in the U.S. to do so</a>.</p>
<p>The New York City public school system is the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_215.30.asp">largest in the nation</a>, and <a href="https://www.tc.columbia.edu/articles/2008/september/post-911-nyc-muslim-public-school-students-feel-safe-but-/#:%7E:text=About%20one%20in%2010%20students,included%20focus%20groups%20and%20ethnography.">about 10% of its student population</a> identifies as Muslim.</p>
<p>By the time New York City schools began to close for Eid, several smaller school districts had already been doing so for more than a decade. For instance, the Irvington school district in New Jersey <a href="https://www.religionnewsblog.com/5039/schools-slowly-adding-muslim-holiday-to-day-off-list">began to close for the Eid al-Fitr in 2003</a>.</p>
<p>In recent years, more and more school districts have begun to close in observance of Eid holidays. Those school districts include districts such as the <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Eid+made+holiday+in+Vermont+city+schools.-a0222678917">Burlington School District</a> in Vermont, which began to close for Eid al-Fitr in 2010, and <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2019/04/20/detroit-schools-close-muslim-holiday-eid-al-fitr/3522641002/">Detroit</a>, which began to close its public schools for Eid holidays in 2019.</p>
<p>The list also includes <a href="https://www.philasd.org/blog/2022/04/28/eidalfitr/">Philadelphia</a>; <a href="https://p3cdn4static.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_166764/File/BCPS%20Calendar%2021-22.pdf">Baltimore</a>; <a href="https://pgcmc.org/eid-ul-fitr-a-public-school-holiday-in-2021/">Prince George’s County in Maryland</a>; <a href="https://www.fcps.edu/calendars/standard-school-year-calendar/2021-22-school-year-calendar/2021-22-religious-and-cultural">Fairfax County</a>, <a href="https://loudounnow.com/2020/12/02/school-board-adds-4-holidays-for-next-school-year/">Loudoun County</a> and <a href="https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/prince-william-school-board-approves-2021-22-calendar-with-diverse-holidays/article_cbf29988-1f09-11eb-aa88-bfb26f06670a.html">Prince William County</a>, all in northern Virginia; and several districts across <a href="https://sahanjournal.com/education/minnesota-school-calendars-eid/">Minnesota</a>, which has a <a href="https://religionsmn.carleton.edu/exhibits/show/history-muslims/muslims-mn">sizable Muslim population</a>.</p>
<h2>Why take a day off if Muslims are a minority?</h2>
<p>In some cases, significant numbers of students were not coming to school on Eid al-Fitr anyway – and school officials began to take note. For instance, a school superintendent in Burlington, Vermont, once related that <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Eid+made+holiday+in+Vermont+city+schools.-a0222678917">about 75 of Burlington High School’s roughly 1,100 students were absent on Eid al-Fitr</a> in 2009 – about 25 more than on a typical school day. In the Fairfax County Public School system, reports show that <a href="https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/forms/Absence%20Data%20Final3.pdf">33.3% and 38.5% more students than usual were absent from school</a> on Eid al-Fitr holidays in 2016 and 2017, respectively.</p>
<p>But absenteeism isn’t the only factor at play. Some school districts are beginning to observe Eid holidays as a matter of <a href="https://sahanjournal.com/education/minnesota-school-calendars-eid/">commitment to equal recognition</a> for Muslim families.</p>
<p>In the Hopkinton Public Schools, in Massachusetts, one school board leader noted that closing school for Eid holidays could <a href="https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/story/news/education/2022/02/05/hopkinton-schools-add-eid-lunar-new-year-no-school-holidays/6657230001/">attract a more diverse</a> pool of educators by not forcing them to take personal days to observe the holiday. In Detroit, a school leader said that closing for Eid holidays was a statement to celebrate the <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2019/4/16/21107970/detroit-school-board-votes-to-close-schools-for-muslim-holiday-of-eid-al-fitr">diversity</a> of the community.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zVbC4vmzeSI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims across the world.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who is leading efforts to get public schools to close for Eid?</h2>
<p>In many cases Muslim students are initiating efforts to gain support for schools to close for Eid al-Fitr. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, for instance, a <a href="https://longisland.news12.com/eid-al-fitr-to-become-official-school-holiday-in-bridgeport-schools-2023-24-school-year">group of eighth grade students in a civics class</a> got the school board to close schools for Eid al-Fitr. In Montclair, New Jersey, school officials decided to close for Eid as called for by a fifth grade Muslim girl’s <a href="https://patch.com/new-jersey/montclair/montclair-schools-will-observe-eid-holiday-after-girl-s-petition">online petition</a>. </p>
<p>In Iowa City, Iowa, a Muslim high school girl <a href="https://www.kcrg.com/2021/04/14/iowa-city-schools-to-take-days-off-for-muslim-and-jewish-holidays-following-student-led-campaign/">advocated</a> for over three years to promote the observance of Eid before the school system there decided to do so. And a student in Detroit helped persuade school board members there through an <a href="https://detroit.chalkbeat.org/2019/4/16/21107970/detroit-school-board-votes-to-close-schools-for-muslim-holiday-of-eid-al-fitr">op-ed</a> <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2019/01/24/detroit-schools-eid-holidays/2639980002/">in the Detroit Free Press</a> to close in observance of Eid.</p>
<p>In some cases, such as in Baltimore, efforts to get public schools to close in observance of Eid have been described as a “<a href="https://www.nassp.org/publication/principal-leadership/volume-20/principal-leadership-april-2020/pins-and-posts-april-2020/">decadeslong battle</a>.” I predict that as more Muslim students call for public schools to close in observance of Eid, it won’t take nearly as long for additional schools to recognize the value of honoring Islamic holidays as other schools have done in recent years.</p>
<h2>What about calculating when the holidays begin?</h2>
<p>Since Muslims go by a <a href="https://islamonline.net/en/ramadan-and-the-lunar-calendar/">lunar calendar</a>, which is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/lunar-year">about 11 days shorter</a> than the 365-day solar calendar that most Americans use, the exact date of Eid al-Fitr changes from year to year.</p>
<p>And not everyone is in agreement about when a particular lunar month begins. Some Muslims go by <a href="https://fiqhcouncil.org/calendar/">astronomical calculations</a> to project the Islamic calendar well into the future. For instance, one Islamic calendar has <a href="https://fiqhcouncil.org/calendar/">projected specific Eid dates into the year 2045</a>. Other Muslims prefer to use traditional methods of local <a href="https://hilalcommittee.org/">moonsighting</a>, which involves using the naked eye to actually see the crescent of the moon to determine the start and end of a lunar month. </p>
<p>This partially explains why there could be different start and end dates for Ramadan on any given year that are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2022/04/25/when-is-eid-al-fitr-2022-this-weekends-rare-shawwal-black-moon-will-end-ramadan-and-cause-a-risky-solar-eclipse-as-the-planets-align/?sh=2a06bd125b41">one day apart</a>. School district leaders may want to defer to whichever method is used by local Muslim authorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amaarah DeCuir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>School districts throughout the nation are beginning to heed calls to give students and teachers a day off in observance of the Eid al Fitr, a major Islamic holiday held at the end of Ramadan.Amaarah DeCuir, Senior Professorial Lecturer in Education, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1777022022-03-30T12:40:07Z2022-03-30T12:40:07ZBlack college presidents had a tough balancing act during the civil rights era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450793/original/file-20220308-13-wpmmsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5442%2C3351&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some Black college presidents stood at the forefront of the civil rights movement. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-7th-president-of-morgan-state-university-martin-news-photo/513374749?adppopup=true">Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Historians have documented <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/civilities-and-civil-rights-9780195029192?cc=us&lang=en&">again</a> and <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807856161/ella-baker-and-the-black-freedom-movement/">again</a> how college students contributed to the civil rights movement. Less attention has been paid to the role college presidents played in the fight for equality. Here, Eddie R. Cole, author of the book “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206745/the-campus-color-line">The Campus Color Line</a>,” discusses various ways these leaders contributed.</em></p>
<h2>1. What pressures did college leaders face in the civil rights era?</h2>
<p>College presidents between 1948 to 1968 had to deal with different segments of society that were at complete odds with one another.</p>
<p>On the one hand, they oversaw schools where students were increasingly protesting segregation. But they also had to deal with segregationist politicians who controlled state funding for their institutions. Some of those politicians were not shy about their opposition to the civil rights movement. For instance, on March 3, 1960, North Carolina Gov. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206745/the-campus-color-line">Luther H. Hodges urged</a> public college leaders to direct students not to participate in civil rights demonstrations.</p>
<p>For the most part, Black college presidents ignored such requests. </p>
<p>But not always. For instance, as president of Kentucky State College – which is now Kentucky State University - <a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/9780813118567/a-black-educator-in-the-segregated-south/">Rufus B. Atwood</a> expelled 12 students for participating in a sit-in at a local lunch counter in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1960.</p>
<h2>2. What was their position on boycotts and sit-ins?</h2>
<p>Most Black college presidents supported student sit-ins. </p>
<p>For example, Cornelius V. Troup, the president of Fort Valley State College - which is now Fort Valley State University - in Georgia, invited Martin D. Jenkins, president of Morgan State College - which is now Morgan State University - from Baltimore on Oct. 10, 1960 to be the keynote speaker at the university’s founders’ day celebration. During his speech, Jenkins expressed support of sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. </p>
<p>“We are witnessing in this country, and indeed throughout the world, an almost revolutionary movement against racial segregation and discrimination,” Jenkins said in his speech. “This movement has many facets. Certainly one of the most interesting of these, and one which may turn out to be of considerable long-term significance, is the so-called ‘sit-in’ or ‘sit-down’ developed by college students, chiefly Negro college students … This is a good movement, and it has surprisingly beneficial results.”</p>
<p>Other university presidents did more than just speak against segregation. Willa B. Player, the president of Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, boycotted the <a href="http://libcdm1.uncg.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CivilRights/id/764">Meyer’s Tea Room</a>, a restaurant in 1960 that had prohibited Black people from sitting in the dining area.</p>
<h2>3. Did college presidents ever compromise?</h2>
<p>At the time, Southern states like Maryland were so opposed to integration that – rather than desegregate their all-white universities – they funded <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/08/biden-has-unique-opportunity-undo-years-education-inequality/">out-of-state scholarship programs</a> for Black residents to go to college somewhere else.</p>
<p>However, these scholarship programs were typically underfunded.</p>
<p>Despite the racist intent behind Southern states paying for programs for Black students to be educated in other states, some presidents of Black colleges and universities saw an opportunity to expand educational options for their students.</p>
<p>That’s why presidents of Black colleges, such as Jenkins, the Morgan State president, met with their respective state officials to increase funding to support these out-of-state scholarship programs. These programs helped students continue their education, especially at the graduate level, at desegregated schools.</p>
<p>Ultimately, not all Black college presidents were on the front lines of the civil rights movement. But many of those who weren’t still contributed to expanding educational opportunities for Black students from behind the scenes.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150K">Join the list today</a>.]`32</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177702/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddie R. Cole has received research funding from fellowships with the Spencer Foundation, National Academy of Education, and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.</span></em></p>College presidents worked both at the forefront and behind the scenes in fighting for African Americans’ civil rights in the 1960s.Eddie R. Cole, Associate Professor of Higher Education and History, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1746992022-01-12T16:43:57Z2022-01-12T16:43:57Z‘Disappointment and disbelief’ after Morrison government vetoes research into student climate activism’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440366/original/file-20220112-23-feiopr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4928%2C3206&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Between 2019 and early 2021, we developed a research proposal asking for funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC). The project was to investigate the mass student climate action movement and its relationship to democracy. </p>
<p>A few weeks ago, on Christmas Eve, we learnt <a href="https://twitter.com/ARC_Tracker/status/1474141201964183553">via Twitter</a> that the ARC had recommended our research proposal for funding, but acting Education Minister Stuart Robert vetoed the recommendation.</p>
<p>Robert also <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/politicisation-of-research-grants-beggars-belief-20211226-p59k6j">vetoed five other</a> humanities projects. He did so <a href="https://www.innovationaus.com/minister-rejects-six-peer-reviewed-arc-research-grants-on-national-interest-grounds/">on the grounds</a> they “do not demonstrate value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest”.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/health-and-education/more-than-60-professors-protest-stuart-robert-s-research-grant-veto-20220110-p59n5t">political intervention is a problem</a> for many reasons. Chief among them, it breaches key principles of academic autonomy and – in our case, also silences research working with young people on a crucial policy issue. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="boy holds sign" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440365/original/file-20220112-23-1ctj3eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440365/original/file-20220112-23-1ctj3eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440365/original/file-20220112-23-1ctj3eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440365/original/file-20220112-23-1ctj3eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440365/original/file-20220112-23-1ctj3eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440365/original/file-20220112-23-1ctj3eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440365/original/file-20220112-23-1ctj3eq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The decision silences research into young people on climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Freedom in research and training’</h2>
<p>Since 1988, almost 1,000 universities in 94 countries have signed <a href="http://www.magna-charta.org">the Magna Charta Universitatum</a>, including ten from Australia. The charter affirms the deepest values of university traditions.</p>
<p>In practice, it means a university “must serve society as a whole” and that “to meet the needs of the world around it, its research and teaching must be intellectually independent of all political authority and economic power”.</p>
<p>Central to the charter is that “freedom in research and training is the fundamental principle of university life”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/about-arc">The ARC</a> administers the National Competitive Grants Program, which delivers around $800 million to Australian researchers each year.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/grants">ARC grants process</a> involves several rounds of rigorous review and assessment, by internationally leading scholars. The ARC then recommends to the education minister which proposals should be funded, and the budget. The minister makes the final funding decisions.</p>
<p>The Morrison government <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fhigher-education%2Fevery-australian-university-has-adopted-morrison-governments-free-speech-code%2Fnews-story%2F756becf4e06a609bf1f96141328d8640&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=dynamic-warm-control-score&V21spcbehaviour=append">claims</a> it wants to protect academic freedoms. And it commissioned <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/higher-education-publications/resources/report-independent-review-freedom-speech-australian-higher-education-providers-march-2019">a 2019 review</a> of freedom of expression and intellectual inquiry in higher education.</p>
<p>However, Robert’s veto of the ARC’s decision to fund six projects is a clear breach of the core principle of academic freedom. </p>
<p>What’s more, it’s not the first time Morrison government education ministers have ridden roughshod over the funding processes of the ARC and university research. </p>
<p>In 2018-19, Simon Birmingham <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/26/knuckle-dragging-philistines-labor-targets-liberals-for-blocking-arts-grants">vetoed</a> 11 research grants recommended by the ARC. In 2020, Dan Tehan <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/more-australian-research-grants-vetoed-outgoing-minister">vetoed</a> five.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arc-grants-if-australia-wants-to-tackle-the-biggest-issues-politicians-need-to-stop-meddling-with-basic-research-174607">ARC grants: if Australia wants to tackle the biggest issues, politicians need to stop meddling with basic research</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man touches head" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440386/original/file-20220112-27-1iw1pqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440386/original/file-20220112-27-1iw1pqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440386/original/file-20220112-27-1iw1pqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440386/original/file-20220112-27-1iw1pqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440386/original/file-20220112-27-1iw1pqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440386/original/file-20220112-27-1iw1pqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440386/original/file-20220112-27-1iw1pqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robert’s veto is a clear breach of academic freedom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lucas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An important new phenomenon</h2>
<p>The project we proposed for ARC funding was titled “New possibilities: student climate action and democratic renewal”. It involved working directly with young people to investigate a significant new phenomenon. </p>
<p>Since 2018, millions of students across the globe have worked hard as leaders, organisers and advocates for action on climate change. Their actions include the school strikes for climate and various <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-landmark-judgment-the-federal-court-found-the-environment-minister-has-a-duty-of-care-to-young-people-161650">legal actions</a>. In Australia since 2018, we estimate at least 500,000 school students have participated in the movement, including coordinated school strike actions online and in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/20/hundreds-of-thousands-attend-school-climate-strike-rallies-across-australia">streets</a>.</p>
<p>Our project was designed to document such actions and to establish:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>why young people participate</p></li>
<li><p>what activities they undertake</p></li>
<li><p>what we can learn from the movement to address climate change and strengthen our democracy. </p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/seriously-ugly-heres-how-australia-will-look-if-the-world-heats-by-3-c-this-century-157875">Seriously ugly: here's how Australia will look if the world heats by 3°C this century</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our project would have led to vital new knowledge on a global phenomenon. It had the potential to help address falling trust in governments and dissatisfaction with democracy, and to give new insights on engaging with young people in learning about and responding to climate change.</p>
<p>It also provided jobs for early-career researchers already facing cripplingly <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-13/covid-job-cuts-at-universities-prompting-fears-for-future/100447960">precarious employment</a> in the university sector.</p>
<p>Our proposal relied on a vast body of academic work and expertise, and previous scholarship by the research team. It was connected to a global research network exploring young people’s climate politics and broader possibilities for democracy. </p>
<p>Developing the proposal involved hundreds of hours of additional research, writing, editing and consultation with professional staff across five universities. </p>
<p>For the ARC to judge the project worthy of funding, it must have determined it passed the <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/national-interest-test-statements">national interest test</a> and that <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/peer-review/overview-arc-funding-process">it was value for money</a>.</p>
<p>Significantly, we have no formal right to appeal the decision. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="students walk and yello at protest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440385/original/file-20220112-23-113gh9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440385/original/file-20220112-23-113gh9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440385/original/file-20220112-23-113gh9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440385/original/file-20220112-23-113gh9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440385/original/file-20220112-23-113gh9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440385/original/file-20220112-23-113gh9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440385/original/file-20220112-23-113gh9o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The project aimed to learn more about the student climate movement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Disappointment and disbelief’</h2>
<p>The minister’s intervention is a serious blow to Australia’s reputation for research excellence and its commitment to academic freedom.</p>
<p>The Morrison government has also sent a negative message to Australia’s young people – essentially saying research into their views on climate change is irrelevant. </p>
<p>We asked students who we work with to respond to the government’s veto, and they stand with us in disappointment and disbelief. Audrey, aged 10, who has participated in climate action, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I personally think that the vetoing was to stop the research from public view to make the government look better, as they aren’t doing enough on climate change. Another main reason why the vetoing is so bad and unfair is that the government is sending the message that young people’s views aren’t important to both young people and the community.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Urgent change is needed to ensure academic autonomy, freedom, and independence of process are not subject to political interference in future. </p>
<p>Addressing urgent and complex problems such as climate change involves research across the full spectrum of society – and that includes Australia’s young people. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ministerial-interference-is-an-attack-on-academic-freedom-and-australias-literary-culture-174329">Ministerial interference is an attack on academic freedom and Australia's literary culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippa Collin receives funding from the NHMRC, Victorian Government, UNICEF and Google.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Churchill receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Faith Gordon receives funding from The Australian Research Council (ARC) and The Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration (AIJA). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Jackson has previously received funding from the International Development Committee of the Australian Greens for research on Asia Pacific environmental movements and parties. He is a member of the Australian Greens.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judith Bessant, Michelle Catanzaro, and Rob Watts do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Addressing urgent and complex problems such as climate change involves research across the full spectrum of society – and that includes Australia’s young people.Philippa Collin, Associate Professor, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityBrendan Churchill, ARC Research Fellow and Lecturer in Sociology, The University of MelbourneFaith Gordon, Associate Professor in Law, Australian National UniversityJudith Bessant, Professor in School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT UniversityMichelle Catanzaro, Senior Lecturer in Design / Senior Research Fellow (YRRC), Western Sydney UniversityRob Watts, Professor of Social Policy, RMIT UniversityStewart Jackson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Government and International Relations, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1432192020-07-24T12:26:52Z2020-07-24T12:26:52ZJohn Lewis traded the typical college experience for activism, arrests and jail cells<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348950/original/file-20200722-36-ebuv5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">John Lewis, right, marched with Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for equality. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/martin-luther-king-leading-a-march-from-selma-to-montgomery-news-photo/525580854">Steve Schapiro / Contributor/GettyImages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an 18-year-old student attending a training session for activists at the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee, John Lewis stuttered and struggled to read. A visiting professor mocked his stammered speech and “poor reading skills” and dismissed Lewis’ potential as a “suitable leader” for the burgeoning movement.</p>
<p>Famed activist and organizer <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/septima-clark/">Septima Clark</a> rose to his defense and her support of Lewis paid off.</p>
<p>The unassuming teenager from the backwoods of Troy, Alabama, became a giant of the Black freedom struggle and, ultimately, would go on to serve more than three decades in Congress. He died on July 17.</p>
<h2>Enthralled by ‘Social Gospel’</h2>
<p>Lewis enrolled in American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, mainly because it charged no tuition, but also due to the profound moral calling that he felt in his life. It was in Nashville where Lewis grew fascinated with the potential of the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/social-gospel">Social Gospel</a> – a theoretical movement that applied Christian principles to addressing social problems such as poverty and white supremacy.</p>
<p>He soon came under the tutelage of <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/james-lawson/">James Lawson</a>, a graduate student at Vanderbilt who was fully immersed in the doctrines of non-violence. Lawson trained other notable activists such as Diane Nash, James Bevel and Bernard Lafayette – all friends and contemporaries of Lewis.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348955/original/file-20200722-34-ex9ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348955/original/file-20200722-34-ex9ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348955/original/file-20200722-34-ex9ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348955/original/file-20200722-34-ex9ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348955/original/file-20200722-34-ex9ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348955/original/file-20200722-34-ex9ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348955/original/file-20200722-34-ex9ib3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Lewis participated in student activism in Montgomery, Ala.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/civil-rights-leaders-including-future-congressman-john-news-photo/51756565">Francis Miller / Contributor/GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The student activism that emerged from southern Black colleges beginning in February of 1960 was the catalyst that the modern civil rights movement desperately needed to confront segregation. The thrust of direct-action protests, such as sit-ins and Freedom Rides, provided the dramatic confrontation that the earlier bus boycotts did not. </p>
<p>However, it was Lawson’s young pacifist disciples from Nashville that heavily influenced the ideology of the early student movement. It also aided in the creation of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, better known as SNCC.</p>
<p>In dedicating his life to the movement as a young student, Lewis willingly gave up the comforts, experiences and accoutrements of a typical college student. Instead of gaining traditional work experience, Lewis got an insider’s look at numerous southern jails and prisons. His activism led to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/us/john-lewis-dead.html">40 arrests between 1960 and 1966</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348951/original/file-20200722-34-yx8q4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348951/original/file-20200722-34-yx8q4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348951/original/file-20200722-34-yx8q4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348951/original/file-20200722-34-yx8q4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348951/original/file-20200722-34-yx8q4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348951/original/file-20200722-34-yx8q4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348951/original/file-20200722-34-yx8q4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Lewis (left) and James Zwerg (right) stand in bloodshed after being beaten by pro-segregationist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/two-blood-splattered-freedom-riders-john-lewis-and-james-news-photo/514694748">Bettmann / Contributor/GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Late-night bull sessions with his fellow SNCC activists who debated the proper path towards freedom became his laboratory. Sit-ins and Freedom Rides served as his examinations. They often resulted in beatings and bloodshed.</p>
<h2>SNCC leadership</h2>
<p>By 1963 Lewis had assumed the chairmanship of SNCC, a position he would hold for the next three years. The formidable organization would undergo its most drastic changes during this period as they wrangled with more <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674447271">moderate and traditional organizations</a>, concerns about <a href="https://www.crmvet.org/docs/6604_sncc_atlanta_race.pdf">white liberalism</a> and the <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814743317/bloody-lowndes/">intractable nature of white supremacy</a>.</p>
<p>Lewis and other SNCC organizers were forced to swallow a bitter pill during the 1963 <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/march-washington-jobs-and-freedom">March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom</a>. Although Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech became a focal point, it was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/07/18/john-lewis-was-last-living-speaker-march-washington-civil-rights-leaders-asked-him-tone-it-down/">Lewis’ speech</a> that drew the most controversy.</p>
<p>Archbishop Patrick O'Boyle, along with march organizer Bayard Rustin, forced Lewis to change his original draft that placed a heavy critique on the slow response of the Kennedy administration in protecting the civil and human rights of activists in the Deep South. The edit prompted Malcolm X to <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Parting-the-Waters/Taylor-Branch/9780671687427">derisively refer to the event as “The Farce on Washington.”</a> It was not the last ideological scrum SNCC would have with liberals and moderates.</p>
<p>During the Democratic National Convention in 1964, the <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/alliances-relationships/mfdp/">Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party</a>, or MFDP, arrived in Atlantic City, New Jersey, expecting to be the duly recognized delegation from the Magnolia State in place of the all-white delegation of the party that had used violence and intimidation in an attempt to keep Blacks from the polls.</p>
<p>Famed activist <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/fannie-lou-hamer/">Fannie Lou Hamer</a> declared that “if the MFDP is not seated now, I question America.” The party was not seated. A <a href="https://snccdigital.org/events/mfdp-challenge-at-democratic-national-convention/">backroom compromise</a> – orchestrated between traditional Black moderates such as NAACP head Roy Wilkins, SCLC organizer Bayard Rustin and Dr. King – left many younger activists bitter and broken. “This was the turning point of the civil rights movement,” <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Walking-with-the-Wind/John-Lewis/9781476797717">Lewis declared</a>. “We had played by the rules, done everything we were supposed to do, had played the game exactly as requested, had arrived at the doorstep, and found the door slammed in our face.”</p>
<p>A year after the disappointment of Atlantic City, the learning curve would continue for Lewis.</p>
<p>As bitter as he and other SNCC activists were about the fallout from the 1964 Democratic Convention, Lewis was still a committed ideologue who held fast to his belief in non-violence as a way of life. That position grew increasingly unpopular with younger activists who championed their constitutional right to armed self-defense in the face of tyranny.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>.]</p>
<p>Many SNCC activists grew wearisome of the practical politics, moderation and compromise that some (including Lewis) argued produced setbacks within the movement. This frustration was on full display during Lewis’ most famous moment - the Selma to Montgomery March of 1965. SNCC’s executive committee had voted against the organization’s involvement because they saw such protest marches as largely ineffective. Lewis participated anyway. The result was “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-images-of-john-lewis-being-beaten-during-bloody-sunday-went-viral-143080">Bloody Sunday</a>,” a horrific display of white terrorism that served as a springboard for the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year. The world watched in horror as television cameras captured the moment that Lewis and hundreds of other peaceful protesters were teargassed, beaten and trampled by state troopers. </p>
<p>Like many committed activists, the social and political education of John Lewis had numerous twists and turns - from a wide-eyed and eager disciple of nonviolence (a commitment that never wavered) to a seasoned activist and organizer whose heroics and courage made him an icon of the movement. That journey came with bumps and bruises – both literally and figuratively – and he would later employ some of those lessons as a United States congressman representing the 5th Congressional District of Georgia for 33 years. In this role, Lewis would champion legislation that upheld the ideals that made him an icon of the movement. He sponsored or co-sponsored thousands of bills targeting poverty, gun violence, civil rights, health care and reform of America’s justice system, just to name a few. He became an award-winning author, and he was lionized as “<a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2020/07/21/remembering-john-lewis-the-conscience-of-congress-a-life-in-photos/">the conscience of Congress</a>.”</p>
<p>While Lewis learned the fine art of negotiating during his years as a movement leader, he never compromised in his insistence for justice and equality for all. In a <a href="https://twitter.com/repjohnlewis/status/1011991303599607808">tweet</a> from 2018, Lewis implored young idealists and activists to “Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Lewis remained a noise maker and a “drum major for peace” until his final days, and his courage and sacrifice should be an inspiration for us all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jelani M. Favors does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though he had a speech impediment and came from humble beginnings, John Lewis went on to become a giant of the civil rights movement.Jelani M. Favors, Associate Professor of History, Clayton State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1415602020-06-29T12:09:57Z2020-06-29T12:09:57ZIn this era of protest over racism, will colleges embrace Black student activists?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344350/original/file-20200626-104538-v4w4yd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will protests on campus look different after COVID-19?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/liliana-ruiz-left-and-jacqueline-ramirez-middle-join-news-photo/1222449974?adppopup=true">Al Seib/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In 2018, sociologist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2AqDS98AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Ted Thornhill</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649218792579">found</a> that Black students who profess an interest in fighting racism were <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-student-activists-face-penalty-in-college-admissions-101009">less likely to get a response</a> from college admission officers than other Black students when inquiring about whether they would be a good fit for a particular college. In light of the nationwide anti-racism protests sparked by the May 25 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, when a police officer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes</a>, The Conversation reached out to Thornhill for his thoughts on whether Black activist students might be more welcome on campus now than before. The Q&A, edited for brevity, is below:</em></p>
<h2>Do you expect wider acceptance of Black activism on college campuses?</h2>
<p>Will some number of colleges and universities that did not embrace Black student activists previously do so now? Perhaps a few. However, I believe more will work, directly and indirectly, to ensure these students never set a foot on their respective campuses.</p>
<p>According to a recent Pew poll, 60% of whites <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2020/06/12/amid-protests-majorities-across-racial-and-ethnic-groups-express-support-for-the-black-lives-matter-movement/">support the Black Lives Matter movement</a>. That means 40% do not. Certainly, some of those whites opposed or indifferent to Black Lives Matter work in higher education. </p>
<p>And the 60% who do support Black Lives Matter is likely somewhat inflated due to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444316568.wiem02057">social desirability bias</a>, which is when people give socially acceptable answers to research questions instead of saying how they really feel. In sum, there is good reason for Black Lives Matter student activists, especially those who have a high profile, to have reservations about the degree to which historically and predominantly white colleges and universities truly desire their presence on campus.</p>
<p>Many institutions <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/08/searching-meaningful-response-college-leaders-killing-george-floyd">have not even made a meaningful commitment</a> to make significant anti-racist changes. Some of the anti-racist statements that colleges and universities have made since the torture and execution of George Floyd have been described by some academics as “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Higher-Ed-s-Toothless/248946">toothless</a>.”</p>
<h2>Could activism actually help students?</h2>
<p>Perhaps, at some institutions. There may be a net increase in the number of enthusiastic administrators and admissions counselors. But these might be at places that were considerably further along their way to becoming truly racially diverse, equitable and inclusive – in a word – <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479822638/antiracism/">anti-racist</a>. To the extent that Black student activism is now viewed more favorably on campus, it might also depend on what kind of college we’re talking about, what part of the country it’s located in and the size and demographics of its student body.</p>
<h2>How might COVID-19 come into play?</h2>
<p>To the extent COVID-19 has increased predominantly white colleges’ and universities’ need for the tuition revenue generated by Black and brown bodies – whether in physical or virtual seats – they may accept a greater number of Black students than is typical for them. Still, while admission counselors are reviewing students’ files, I would expect that many will still view most favorably those Black students who are the least explicit about being racially conscious.</p>
<p>Some Black students may choose to hide their activism because they understand that most whites, including admissions counselors, likely view it in a negative light. In this instance, they would be doing so tactically, solely for the purposes of gaining admittance. Still, I suspect that Black students who are the most committed to Black Lives Matter activism will refuse to hide or downplay their activism.</p>
<p>Lastly, just because colleges might operate fully or largely online in the fall due to COVID-19, does not mean that racism will magically <a href="https://theconversation.com/authorities-are-yanking-the-legacy-of-slaveholder-john-c-calhoun-from-public-sphere-but-his-bigotry-remains-embedded-in-american-society-140917">disappear from higher education</a>. Racism is as likely to appear in the virtual classroom – and other parts of college that move online – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2016.1214296">as it did on the physical campus</a>, so anti-racist activism will likely have to take place in the digital realm as well.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141560/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Thornhill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A 2018 study found that Black activist students were less likely to get a response to their college inquiries. A sociologist discusses whether the protests of 2020 will do anything to change that.Ted Thornhill, Associate Professor of Sociology, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1323112020-03-04T11:57:25Z2020-03-04T11:57:25ZWhy colleges should think twice before punishing student protesters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318443/original/file-20200303-66060-194k09f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Student activists are calling attention to a wide range of issues on campus.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/arielle-riapos-speaks-as-a-small-group-of-student-activists-news-photo/948783778?adppopup=true">Drew Angerer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For much of the 2019-2020 academic year, <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/03/03/not-again-su-meets-with-administrators">Syracuse University has been besieged by student protests</a> over how the school handled of a series of <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2019/11/notagainsu-a-timeline-of-racist-incidents-at-syracuse-university.html">racist incidents on campus</a>.</p>
<p>In the latest protest, Syracuse student activists have <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/02/18/not-again-su-protests-again">occupied</a> the campus administration building since Feb. 17. Using the hashtag #NotAgainSU, they are calling for action in the wake of <a href="https://twitter.com/notagain_su/status/1229502234850971649">racist, anti-Semitic and bias-related incidents</a> that allegedly occurred on campus since this past November, when they staged an earlier sit-in to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/nyregion/syracuse-university-racism.html">protest a spate of hate speech acts on campus</a>. </p>
<p>The school initially <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2020/02/after-warnings-syracuse-university-suspends-30-student-protesters-refusing-to-leave.html">suspended 30 students</a> involved in the latest occupation. However, <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2020/02/syracuse-chancellor-orders-protesters-suspensions-lifted-we-need-to-step-back.html">Chancellor Kent Syverud</a> lifted the suspensions two days later. The Syracuse protesters have been meeting with the administration since March 2 to negotiate a <a href="http://dailyorange.com/2020/02/notagainsu-releases-10-demands-including-exemption-absences/">series of demands</a>. Some of the demands have <a href="https://news.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Signed-Response-to-Concerns.pdf">already been met</a> since the November sit-in.</p>
<p>Among other things, those demands include hiring more faculty of color and more counselors, revising the curriculum, giving students with disabilities preference in housing, and disarming public safety officers. Protesters also want to establish new policies for reporting bias-related incidents at the <a href="https://www.syracuse.edu/about/facts-figures-rankings/">150-year-old institution</a>, which is located in central New York state and serves more than 15,000 undergraduates.</p>
<p>Whereas some may view student protests as <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/16/black-ucsc-student-activists-ought-to-be-expelled/">something to be squelched</a>, as an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BMfdLFYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">education researcher</a> and author of a <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/new-student-activists">book about student activists</a>, I have come to see that campus protests, like the ones at Syracuse, serve an important educational purpose.</p>
<p>Through activism, students learn not only to recognize and confront what they see as an unjust state of affairs. They also come to identify the root causes of a problem and develop solutions. The question college leaders and the broader society must ask, then, is if punishing student protesters – as what <a href="https://www.syracuse.com/syracuse-university/2020/02/after-warnings-syracuse-university-suspends-30-student-protesters-refusing-to-leave.html">initially took place</a> at Syracuse – is the right course of action.</p>
<p>The school’s officials have acknowledged they are searching for answers in this regard.</p>
<p>“We all messed this up and I’m sorry,” said <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/03/03/not-again-su-meets-with-administrators">Amanda Nicholson</a>, the assistant provost and dean of student success at Syracuse University. “What we know is our current policies on how we work with protests have failed. They don’t work. This is not a workable situation. We need to come up with something that really does work.”</p>
<h2>Thinking ahead</h2>
<p>I’ve found that student activists today are quite sophisticated when they seek to negotiate and develop strategies for change.</p>
<p>Consider an example from my new book, “<a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/new-student-activists">The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on Campus</a>,” in which student activists sought to persuade campus administrators to replace what they saw as a culturally insensitive mascot. They figured that petitions, bookstore boycotts and other such actions would not get the administration to budge. So they crafted a compromise position to offer, once those other tactics would fail.</p>
<p>The compromise would be to require all freshman to take a course in the history and culture of the people represented by the mascot. </p>
<p>Privately, the student activists reasoned that as more students became educated on why it is problematic for people from a dominant culture to use an oppressed group’s identity as a mascot, support for changing the mascot would grow. Publicly, they would present the compromise to administrators as a relatively low-cost and responsible way to address the activists’ concerns.</p>
<p>The Syracuse protesters are pursuing similar tactics and goals. For instance, their list of demands includes creating a course on the <a href="http://dailyorange.com/2020/02/notagainsu-releases-10-demands-including-exemption-absences/">history of protests on their campus</a>.</p>
<h2>Learning beyond the classroom</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.310">Research</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.310">affirms</a> the idea that through activism, students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2010.0001">develop critical analysis skills</a> and a deeper understanding of society and social change.</p>
<p>Student activists have called out their colleges for a variety of things – from <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/these-georgetown-students-fought-nike-and-won/">relying on overseas sweatshops</a> to produce their college apparel, to <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/california-fossil-fuels/">polluting the environment</a> to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/education/activists-at-colleges-network-to-fight-sexual-assault.html">doing too little</a> to investigate and punish sexual assault and harassment on campus.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/person/1138">Robert Rhoads</a>, a scholar of higher education, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-40688-001">found</a> that activism teaches students things they are unlikely to learn from course materials or class discussions. My own research, however, finds that activism can complement academic learning.</p>
<p>For instance, in my <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/new-student-activists">study</a> of more than 200 student activists at 120 colleges and universities across the United States, I found that most believed their activism enhanced their academic performance.</p>
<p>Although some acknowledged that activist work could feel more important or pressing than a homework assignment, the students by and large credited their activism with making them more successful academically. In some cases, it enabled them to make connections to theory or to apply course material to their everyday life. In other cases, it inspired them to work harder in classes so they would be seen as intellectually credible. Only 12.5% said activism hurt their grades or academic engagement.</p>
<h2>Looking to the future</h2>
<p>Sometimes, colleges don’t recognize the value of student activists until long after the fact. For instance, in February, the University of Mississippi – better known as Ole Miss – <a href="http://diversity.olemiss.edu/50-years-2020/">welcomed back</a> five former students who had been expelled 50 years ago for protesting a campus environment that was hostile to minority students. The events were intended to honor the sacrifice of the activists and acknowledge the harm they suffered from law enforcement and university administrators.</p>
<p>I don’t think it should take half a century for a university – and society in general – to figure out that punishing students who challenge their institutions to improve is the wrong way to go. Fortunately, Syracuse Chancellor Syverud recognized that it was wrong to expel protesters when he reversed the #NotAgainSU suspensions.</p>
<p>The deeper challenge for all universities, in my view, is to figure out how to address the conditions that give rise to protest in the first place.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerusha Osberg Conner receives research funding from the Spencer Foundation.</span></em></p>As a student protest continues at Syracuse University, a scholar argues that student activism is a valuable part of the college experience.Jerusha Osberg Conner, Associate Professor of Education, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156942019-09-15T12:20:03Z2019-09-15T12:20:03Z#Fridaysforfuture: When youth push the environmental movement towards climate justice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292291/original/file-20190912-190031-eobe9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Climate activist Greta Thunberg, centre left, joins a coalition of youth climate leaders and environmental groups during a climate strike outside the United Nations, Aug. 30, 2019, in New York. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a time of <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">climate catastrophe</a>, after record-breaking temperatures scorched many parts of the world this summer and a devastating hurricane recently battered the Bahamas, school climate strikes are back. </p>
<p>A week of <a href="https://globalclimatestrike.net/">student-led global days of action is planned between Sept. 20 and 27</a>. Young people skipping school to protest climate inaction in <a href="https://www.fridaysforfuture.org/">#Fridaysforfuture protests</a> began last August when Greta Thunberg, now 16, sat outside the Swedish parliament for three weeks. Following her lead, young people have been walking out of school — some of them calling for “<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-strikes-greta-thunberg-calls-for-system-change-not-climate-change-heres-what-that-could-look-like-112891">system change, not climate change</a>.” </p>
<p>For those of us who have been analyzing climate activism, this is an important move toward a politicized generation that understands climate change is the greatest threat to our collective future. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1131998619329024001"}"></div></p>
<h2>Youth climate activists and academics</h2>
<p>Our activist research collaborative, the RadLab based at the University of Manitoba, is made up of both youth climate activists and academics. </p>
<p>We have worked together over the last five years to look at the learning in activism and analyze how young climate activists become politicized. We’ve studied the historic socio-cultural roots of the North American environmental movement, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vanity-fair-the-unbearabl_b_48766">their ongoing legacy</a> and lived experiences in today’s environmental activism.</p>
<p>We have found that high-profile mainstream environmental movements in the United States and Canada tend to see themselves as virtuous while not acknowledging that <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/green-imperialism-colonial-expansion-tropical-island-edens-and-origins-environmentalism-16001860?format=PB&isbn=9780521565134">environmentalism grew out of racialized imperialist and colonial strategies of land expansion</a> and protection. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/conservation-refugees">conservationism has been interconnected with alienating lands from Indigenous people</a>. Indigenous communities and poor people have been removed, relocated and displaced to <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/rethinking-the-great-white-north">protect privileged leisure access to “nature,” or white settler economic interests</a>. </p>
<p>High-profile mainstream environmental movements in Canada and the U.S. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ares.2018.090110">have often inadequately addressed or acknowledged this colonial and racialized history and analysis</a>. They have often ignored environmental damage in Black communities, communities of colour and Indigenous communities. Black activists and activists of colour working in their communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764200043004003">have called their work environmental justice</a>. Indigenous communities’ work related to environmentalism has been rooted in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600136/our-history-is-the-future-by-nick-estes/9781786636720/">sovereignty advocacy</a>; they have centred their relationships with lands, water and life that is “<a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/being-together-in-place">more than human</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292296/original/file-20190912-190065-1r49ozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toronto climate strike, March 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Milan Ilnyckyj/Flickr)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research suggests climate activists involved in mainstream environmental movements are <a href="https://publisher.abc-clio.com/9781440842139/">learning from broader environmental justice and Indigenous sovereignty movements</a> and that some today are <a href="http://joecurnow.com/Curnow%20&%20Gross%202017.pdf">adopting this broader climate justice analysis</a>.</p>
<p>They also don’t believe that people in power are looking out for their best interests and they are demonstrating that young people must have a hand in shaping the future.</p>
<h2>Moving toward systemic approaches</h2>
<p>University students have been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13549839.2015.1009825">organizing to demand that their schools divest from fossil fuel companies</a>. </p>
<p>We researched the shifts some activists involved with University of Toronto’s fossil fuel divestment group (Fossil Free UofT) experienced when they <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218804496">moved toward more systemic approaches to addressing climate change</a>. A few of those activists became the members of the RadLab Collective through this participatory action research project. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292281/original/file-20190912-190026-15rt4un.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fossil Free University of Toronto activists at the March for Jobs, Justice and the Climate in July 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Andrew Kohan)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the three years since the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/university-toronto-fossil-fuels-1.3512891">University of Toronto’s president rejected divestment</a>, we have worked together to analyze the learning made possible through our environmental activism. </p>
<p>In our research process, we collected video of every meeting, rally and action that was part of the divestment campaign for two years and analyzed it. We found that the learning students experienced helped them to shift how they understood themselves so that they embraced an identity as environmentalists committed to climate justice. </p>
<p>Learning wasn’t just about ideas or new concepts in participants’ minds — it was about how they learned to participate and communicate together so that the space of planning, organizing and actions could become more equitable. </p>
<p>They began to engage in ways that reflected their emerging understanding that objectivity is a Euro-Western construct. They embraced the reality they were discovering: that knowledge could emerge through relationships and experiences. Such ideas are shared <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Black-Feminist-Thought-Knowledge-Consciousness-and-the-Politics-of-Empowerment/Hill-Collins/p/book/9780415964722">by feminist</a> and <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=413800432915271;res=IELIND">Indigenous philosophies</a>. </p>
<h2>Learning scaled up</h2>
<p>We charted how divestment activists moved from thinking of environmentalism narrowly, to thinking about it in its historic relationship to colonialism, racialization and capitalism. This thinking shifted what they believed was required of them as activists and who they felt accountable to.</p>
<p>Through research data analysis and informal conversation, group members <a href="http://www.environmentandsociety.org/perspectives/2017/4/article/taking-space-men-masculinity-and-student-climate-movement">identified the patterned practices of exclusion, which our research group analyzed</a>. In our group, Black and Indigenous group members and members of colour initially had fewer opportunities for leadership and had their ideas affirmed by anyone in the group far less frequently. As members noticed and named this, they became politicized and worked to shift the dynamics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292282/original/file-20190912-190065-1ircq6x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fossil Free University of Toronto activists at the March for Jobs, Justice and the Climate in July 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Andrew Kohan)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through the process of naming racialized and gendered patterns in the group, the politics of the group shifted. Black and Indigenous group members and members of colour shared their experiences of racialization in an informal people-of-colour caucus, and later in the equity committee they established. </p>
<p>A similar process emerged around gender in the group. As women and non-binary people shared their experiences of being left out of discussions and decision-making, they identified the pattern, and worked together to change the group’s processes. </p>
<p>From these alternative spaces, group members became politicized and amplified each other’s voices. They changed their collective practices and ways of knowing so that their analysis came to shape the group’s overall lens more and more. And these changes shifted how members identified — they came to see themselves as “radicals.” </p>
<p>The learning that happened around race and gender in the group scaled up, so that they understood anti-colonial, racial and gender justice as important at all levels of the campaign. </p>
<p>This changed some of the demands of the group, as they moved to include <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-and-informed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-local-communities-fao/">Indigenous solidarity language around Free, Prior and Informed Consent</a>
<a href="http://www.uoftfacultydivest.com/files/fossil-fuel-divest.pdf">in their analysis</a>.</p>
<p>They also <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03626784.2018.1468211">examined the limitations and problems with land acknowledgements</a>, and they and advocated for other anti-colonial campaigns on campus and <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/everyday-exposure">across Canada</a>, like work in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AamjiwnaangSarniaAgainstPipelines/">Aamjiwnaang First Nation</a> and <a href="http://unistoten.camp">Unist'ot'en</a>.</p>
<h2>Justice-centred policies</h2>
<p>Our research suggests that many of today’s young activists are less willing to accept normalized, racialized, colonial and patriarchal dynamics in their groups. This includes the <a href="http://vaipl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ExecutiveSummary-Diverse-Green.pdf">consequences of decades of predominantly white men’s leadership</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/08/white-men-environmental-movement-leadership">in environmental NGOs</a> or their universities and in state policies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/292300/original/file-20190912-190016-14zzzho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Toronto climate strike, March 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Milan Ilnyckyj/Flickr)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our research team is continuing to analyze data that will help us understand how environmentalists learn about solidarity and justice, grounded in an awareness of the contradictions and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2018.1468211">limitations of solidarity</a>.</p>
<p>We want to learn in order to support people willing and able to fight for justice-centred policies that will stop the worst of the climate crisis for all communities. </p>
<p><em>Sinéad Dunphy co-wrote this article as part of the RadLab, an ongoing activist research collaborative based at the University of Manitoba.</em></p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115694/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joe Curnow received funding from the Vanier CGS for this research. </span></em></p>A research team of youth climate activists and academics is examining how environmentalists learn about solidarity and justice.Joe Curnow, Assistant Professor of Education, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1190602019-08-29T22:06:38Z2019-08-29T22:06:38ZWhat does ‘We are all treaty people’ mean, and who speaks for Indigenous students on campus?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290159/original/file-20190829-106530-1f1mnih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=58%2C143%2C2833%2C1818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students stage a walkout to raise awareness about systemic discrimination in the Canadian justice system during a protest at the University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C., on March 14, 2018. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While there has been a recent growing awareness of Indigenous cultures at Canadian universities, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenization-university-students-1.4841965">racism, violence and dismissal still dominate conversations on campus.</a></p>
<p>In December 2015, when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) issued its Calls to Action, education was at the centre. Many Canadian universities have been working to incorporate the recommendations. </p>
<p>But universities <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/indigenization-efforts-vary-widely-on-canadian-campuses-study-finds/">have mostly adopted a top-down approach to Indigenization.</a> In many cases, the Indigenization process lacks <a href="https://indigenousnationhood.blogspot.com/2019/05/reconciliation-with-indigenous-peoples.html">substance</a>. The process often comes with a slogan: “<a href="https://www.oise.utoronto.ca/abed101/we-are-all-treaty-people/">We are all treaty people</a>.” </p>
<p>“We are all treaty people” is intended to emphasize that all people have treaty rights and responsibilities. But I believe that it conveys instead a false sense of equally shared benefits between Indigenous Peoples and settlers. </p>
<p>The phrase ignores the social, economic and political devastation of Indigenous communities through federal betrayal and mismanagement of Canada’s treaty obligations. Sociologists Eve Tuck (Unangax, Aleut Community of St. Paul Island) and K. Wayne Yang have discussed false senses of equality as a “<a href="https://www.latrobe.edu.au/staff-profiles/data/docs/fjcollins.pdf">move to innocence</a>” by settlers.</p>
<p>Often, the university is positioned as the institutional saviour, as being uniquely able to help Indigenous students succeed. A recognition of the university’s complicity in past inequities is not usually the starting point but may come after public pressure from Indigenous activists.</p>
<p>Indigenous voices that denounce the continued marginalization of Indigenous
Peoples within these projects are viewed as radicals by university administrators. This institutional distrust long predates the TRC.</p>
<h2>Much stays the same</h2>
<p>In June 1966, when the refrain was the <a href="https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1969/12/1/what-the-canadian-indian-wants-from-you">“Canadian Mosaic,”</a> members of the Canadian Indian Youth Council (CIYC) disagreed about how students on campus should learn about Indigenous issues. The CIYC, initially housed at the University of Manitoba, was a student-led activist group that advocated for Indigenous rights and self-determination across Canada. </p>
<p>The disagreement strained the relationship between the CIYC and the <a href="https://archives.mcmaster.ca/index.php/national-federation-of-canadian-university-students-2">Canadian Union of Students (CUS)</a>. The CUS was a national coalition of Canadian university students councils, including the CIYC. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/harold-cardinal">Harold Cardinal</a> (Sucker Creek Cree), who <a href="https://btlbooks.com/book/unsettling-canada">vocally opposed the White Paper</a> and later wrote <em><a href="http://www.douglas-mcintyre.com/book/unjust-society">The Unjust Society</a></em>, was a founding member of the CIYC. Cardinal praised campus awareness programs run through the Canadian Union of Students. The teach-in style programs had been set up “in an attempt to dispel the ignorance of the non-informed and, at times, apathetic public.”</p>
<p>But rather than leave the programs under the control of the CUS, Cardinal wanted to encourage Indigenous students’ involvement as partners. He believed these programs were a perfect opportunity for Indigenous students to voice “<a href="https://archives.mcmaster.ca/index.php/national-federation-of-canadian-university-students-2">great disapproval</a> for the shameful, ironical, and disgusting breach of Treaty Rights which have been perpetuated on us for many years.” </p>
<p>Two months later, fellow CIYC member <a href="https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1964/5/16/how-kahn-tineta-horn-became-an-indian">Kahn-Tineta Horn</a> (Kahnawá:ke), argued against Cardinal’s idea. Not against Indigenous students speaking out, but against collaboration with the CUS. Her preference was for the CIYC to work alone. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"885320919643594752"}"></div></p>
<p>Horn wrote that “it has been my privilege to make clear that the <a href="https://archives.mcmaster.ca/index.php/national-federation-of-canadian-university-students-2">Canadian Union of Students</a>, and all students, in fact, should mind their business and keep their nose out of the affairs of Indians.” </p>
<p>She continued that “all you can do is confuse the issues, block reality and develop a situation which will, in the end, damage the interests of Indians.” </p>
<p>Despite their conflicting opinions, both shared a vision of Indigenous students telling their own stories on college campuses. At a time when there were almost no Indigenous faculty in Canada, student voices were essential in raising awareness of the disparities Indigenous Peoples faced.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-from-history-indigenous-womens-activism-in-saskatchewan-103279">Hidden from history: Indigenous women's activism in Saskatchewan</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Cardinal, Kahn and their CIYC cohort were, however, considered radical by most fellow students and news media. This was primarily because they vocally rejected societal, institutional and state interpretations about Indigenous pasts, presents and futures. </p>
<p>Fifty plus years later, contemporary Indigenous students express similar concerns about how they are represented, and by whom, on campus.</p>
<h2>Pressure on Indigenous faculty</h2>
<p>Indigenous faculty represent <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/with-a-shared-commitment-canadas-universities-take-steps-toward-reconciliation/">1.4 per cent</a> of Canadian professors. </p>
<p>This low percentage <a href="https://www.ubyssey.ca/news/the-gold-rush-canadian-academia-rush-indigenous-faculty/">places excessive pressure</a> on Indigenous faculty, staff and students. Most are expected to be the voices of Indigenous Peoples on their campuses; few are part of the executive decision-making process. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/law-professor-put-on-trial-for-trespassing-on-familys-ancestral-lands-114065">Law professor put on trial for 'trespassing' on family's ancestral lands</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This paradox means Indigenous faculty are <a href="http://cfr.info.yorku.ca/2019/05/7806/">placed in a spotlight and marginalized at the same time</a>. This dynamic puts faculty, staff and students at risk of reprisal if they speak out against policies they see as detrimental to Indigenous students. </p>
<p>Those who speak out can find themselves, in much the way that Cardinal, Horn and the CIYC were, classified as radicals. This leaves little space for them institutionally. </p>
<p>This situation can be rectified: Indigenous faculty, staff and students should lead Indigenization projects rather than just being consulted on them. How can this happen, when such faculty are already over-committed on campus?</p>
<p>As a settler scholar, I believe it is vital to relieve this pressure on Indigenous colleagues. We must push our institutions to allow Indigenous faculty, staff and students to lead the decision making processes. We can relieve service expectations elsewhere. </p>
<p>We must help change institutional perceptions. Universities need to accept the legitimacy of Indigenous legal and cultural systems. </p>
<p>There are too few institutional attempts to dismantle or restructure the current system to properly decolonize. Exceptions include The <a href="https://yellowheadinstitute.org">Yellowhead Institute</a> at Ryerson University, the <a href="https://nctr.ca/map.php">National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation</a> at the University of Manitoba, and the <a href="https://aboriginal.ubc.ca/indian-residential-school-centre/">Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre</a> at the University of British Columbia. </p>
<h2>Corporate motivations</h2>
<p>Campus-corporate <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/vice-president-research/internal-honours-prizes/petro-canada-recipients">partnerships are a reality</a> in Canada. How might these partnerships influence the kinds of programs that are developed or lauded? How do such partnerships impact what’s valued in Indigenization?</p>
<p>For example, Thompson Rivers University has <a href="https://www.transmountain.com/news/2015/thompson-rivers-university-and-trans-mountain-sign-a-500-000-community-benefit-agreement">a “community benefit agreement” with Trans Mountain Pipeline</a>. </p>
<p>According to Trans Mountain, the company has signed <a href="https://www.transmountain.com/news/2017/trans-mountain-named-thompson-rivers-university-largest-donor-of-the-year">15 such agreements</a> to benefit communities along the proposed pipeline route. The TRU agreement includes funding towards bursary programs for students in fields <a href="https://tru.ca/__shared/assets/Trans_Mountain_201742020.pdf">related to the energy industry</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290198/original/file-20190829-106524-1w3inz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290198/original/file-20190829-106524-1w3inz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290198/original/file-20190829-106524-1w3inz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290198/original/file-20190829-106524-1w3inz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290198/original/file-20190829-106524-1w3inz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290198/original/file-20190829-106524-1w3inz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290198/original/file-20190829-106524-1w3inz1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hereditary Chief Ronnie West, centre, from the Lake Babine First Nation, sings and beats a drum during a solidarity march after Indigenous nations and supporters gathered for a meeting to show support for the Wet'suwet'en Nation, in Smithers, B.C., on January 16, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The TRU agreement contains a clause that says the university <a href="https://tru.ca/__shared/assets/Trans_Mountain_201742020.pdf">would provide a copy of any public announcements</a> regarding the program to Trans Mountain for approval. Would research or scholarship opposed to the pipeline be approved under such circumstances?</p>
<h2>Elevating voices of protest</h2>
<p>The majority of contemporary Indigenous students yearn to see their communities reflected and represented on campus. </p>
<p>Students want this representation to include those community members and activists fighting against pipelines, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/telescopes-hawaii-reopen-after-deal-protesters">telescopes</a> and other forms of settler intrusion on Indigenous territories. Usually, the public is informed by media agencies <a href="https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/seeing-red">reporting these issues from the settler perspective</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290155/original/file-20190829-106504-1wa7rjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many students want to hear Indigenous voices of protest on campus. Women’s March, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dulcey Lima / Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We must be as informed by Indigenous Peoples who want to fight the settler system as we are by those who want to work within it. This includes faculty working to change the system from within and community members who reject the system outright.</p>
<p>Universities cannot proclaim reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples while silencing Indigenous voices of dissent. As in the 1960s, Indigenous students need spaces to speak to power. Indigenous students need platforms where they can speak for themselves, on their terms. They need to know that they will be heard, listened to and that their concerns will be acted upon. </p>
<p>Indigenization cannot take place without radical change. Radical change cannot take place until institutions actively listen to the “radical” Indigenous voices they currently exclude. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul McKenzie-Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As students and faculty start a new academic year, it’s a good time to highlight the barriers to Indigenizing the campus and the importance of Indigenous voices on campus.Paul McKenzie-Jones, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Studies, University of LethbridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1133012019-04-10T10:49:22Z2019-04-10T10:49:22ZHow a ‘missing’ movement made gun control a winning issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267910/original/file-20190406-115803-1844i79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler shakes hands with Aalayah Eastmond, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during a hearing on guns violence at Capitol Hill on Feb. 6, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Congress-Guns/4914a790284a46058a0eaf8f5ec1f12c/2/0">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thirty-three Republicans and all but one Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives agreed to pass <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/04/707685268/violence-against-women-act-gets-tangled-up-in-gun-rights-debate">additional restrictions</a> on gun ownership as part of a renewed Violence Against Women Act earlier this month. This move came on the heels of the February passage of two gun control bills: the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8/text">Bipartisan Background Checks Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1112">Enhanced Background Checks Act</a>, all of which were opposed by the NRA.</p>
<p>As the first gun control legislation to pass either the House or Senate since the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/4296/text">1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban</a>, the recent bills mark a historic shift in American politics. </p>
<p>We have studied contemporary American gun culture for the past four years, tracing the foundation of the emerging gun control movement. Our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0276146717715744">research</a> offers insight into the ways that gun violence prevention groups have promoted cultural shifts around guns, and why so many legislators are now willing to broach this contentious issue. </p>
<p>For the past 25 years, gun control has been the untouchable “third rail” of American politics. Even in the face of multiple mass shootings – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/18/us/columbine-high-school-shootings-fast-facts/index.html">Columbine</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/16cnd-shooting.html">Virginia Tech</a>, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/back-aurora-colorado-movie-theater-shooting-years/story?id=48730066">Aurora</a>, <a href="http://time.com/5061579/sandy-hook-newtown-history/">Sandy Hook</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/2016-orlando-shooting">Orlando</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/02/555229322/many-questions-remain-in-the-aftermath-of-the-las-vegas-shooting">Las Vegas</a>, to name a few – very few politicians have declared themselves in favor of gun control. On the other hand, many successful politicians have positioned themselves as “pro-gun.” </p>
<p>By avoiding associating themselves with gun control, politicians have skirted a divisive issue. But they have also perpetuated the notion that gun regulations are not feasible or palatable to American citizens.</p>
<p>Background check <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gun-control-overhaul-is-defeated-in-senate/2013/04/17/57eb028a-a77c-11e2-b029-8fb7e977ef71_story.html?utm_term=.33fe4e3698cb">bills failed</a> in the 2013 Democrat-led Senate. They failed again in the 2016 Republican-led Senate. That seems surprising given that national <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/images/polling/us/us01142019_trends_utsc21.pdf/">polls</a> report that, for the last six years, nine in 10 Americans have supported background check requirements on gun purchases. The failure of these bills provoked a <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Parkland.html?id=ZrhnDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false">sense of resignation</a> from many Americans weary of the violence, who feared that if the Sandy Hook shooting hadn’t prompted legislative action, nothing would. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://cctweb.org/about">consumer culture</a> scholars, we find two things particularly notable about the passage of the House bills. First, the gun control movement’s seeds, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=04Y3AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">planted as far back as 1974</a>, have now begun to sprout. Second, passage of the bills is remarkable evidence of this social movement, irrespective of any Senate action or inaction.</p>
<h2>The emerging movement</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267908/original/file-20190406-115797-1h93ndk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267908/original/file-20190406-115797-1h93ndk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267908/original/file-20190406-115797-1h93ndk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267908/original/file-20190406-115797-1h93ndk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267908/original/file-20190406-115797-1h93ndk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267908/original/file-20190406-115797-1h93ndk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267908/original/file-20190406-115797-1h93ndk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">March 24, 2018 ‘March for Our Lives’ rally in Washington in support of gun control.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Youth-Vote-Midterms/82e956f385c14ea9acf1426b512f98e1/7/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>American gun violence has provoked routine public condemnation and support for stronger gun laws. Yet, gun policy experts like Duke University political scientist Kristin Goss have described gun control as America’s “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=FFgQC1hZnpoC&lpg=PP1&dq=kristin%20goss&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=kristin%20goss&f=false">missing movement</a>.” As of 2006, groups of concerned citizens had not gathered the financial resources, strategic framing and incremental policy changes needed to galvanize into a full-fledged movement.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/20426761211203247">Research</a> on government anti-smoking campaigns has shown that changing the culture requires influencing change at multiple levels, including legislation, business and organization policies and individual behavior. </p>
<p>In recent years, groups like <a href="https://everytown.org/">Everytown for Gun Safety</a> and <a href="https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/">Sandy Hook Promise</a> have worked mostly independently, but in ways that reinforced each other, on issues related to gun violence prevention. For instance, some groups encouraged voters and state legislators to institute <a href="https://giffords.org/issue/background-checks/">universal background checks</a> and businesses to adopt preventive policies, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods’ <a href="https://everytown.org/press/moms-demand-action-everytown-applaud-dicks-sporting-goods-for-changing-its-policies-on-gun-sales-following-the-parkland-school-shooting/">decision</a> to stop selling “assault-style” rifles, while others focused on convincing <a href="https://momsdemandaction.org/preventing-child-access-guns-safeandsound/">gun owners to store</a> their guns in a locked safe. The groups often used <a href="https://lawcenter.giffords.org/facts/statistics/">statistics and research data</a> in their efforts.</p>
<p>These gun violence prevention groups have sought incremental policy changes, while also explicitly supporting Americans’ <a href="https://lawcenter.giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Supreme-Court-and-the-Second-Amendment-Factsheet.pdf">constitutional rights</a>. This measured, <a href="https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2017/jul/gun-violence-prevention-groups-strike-middle-ground-meet-goals">middle-ground</a> approach appears to have laid the necessary scaffolding for the full-fledged movement sparked by the Parkland shooting in February of 2018.</p>
<h2>What changed after Parkland</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331843674_Negotiating_the_Legitimacy_of_an_American_Icon_Myth_and_the_US_Gun_Market">research</a> indicates that a critical change happened after Parkland. Parkland survivors galvanized both citizens previously involved in gun violence prevention and a broader range of Americans not with statistics and data, but by employing two powerful and complementary narratives. </p>
<p>The first involves hero-kids taking on the infamous gun lobby – a David-and-Goliath story easy to rally behind. The second challenged parents, and young adults who grew up in an age of lockdown drills, to be heroes themselves by voting pro-gun candidates out of office.</p>
<p>The second narrative involves <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=q2N8DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=goss+kristin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj937vg4IzhAhWqjFQKHVhDAIsQ6AEIPTAD#v=onepage&q=goss%20kristin&f=false">parental duty</a> to protect children. This has been successful for many social movements, and the pro-gun movement is no exception.</p>
<p>A movement’s success can manifest in different forms. Legislation is one such form. Changes in public opinion, individual behaviors or organizational policies, or, more broadly, shifts in the way we talk about social issues are others. This latter form of change is significant. When a contentious issue shifts from a taboo, fringe or radical topic into the mainstream, public attention moves from a question of “whether” to a question of “how” to address the issue.</p>
<p>The activism in the wake of Parkland appears to have made a difference. Many candidates for the federal elections in 2018 made “common sense gun control” part of their <a href="https://lucyforcongress.com/issue/gun-safety/">platform</a>. Notably, many of these candidates, like U.S. Reps. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/04/us/politics/gun-control-candidates-election.html">Jason Crow</a> and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/09/gun-control-is-winning-issue-in-midterms-as-advocates-gain-in-house-defy-nra.html">Jennifer Wexton</a>, were elected. </p>
<p>These election results suggest the movement’s efforts in laying the groundwork for cultural change and shifting the social discourse has enabled many Americans to disentangle “gun control” from “anti gun,” and to simultaneously support both the right to bear arms and reasonable restrictions on that right. The movement’s success in doing so has made supporting gun control possible for today’s politicians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gun control bills passed recently by the House of Representatives may never become law, but they are still a sign of important change.Aimee Dinnín Huff, Assistant Professor, Marketing, Oregon State UniversityMichelle Barnhart, Associate Professor of Marketing, Oregon State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1125022019-03-08T11:42:25Z2019-03-08T11:42:25Z3 ways activist kids these days resemble their predecessors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262758/original/file-20190307-82684-1a0ps8s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yolanda Renee King, the grandchild of Martin Luther King Jr., alongside Jaclyn Corin, a Parkland survivor and activist</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Student-Gun-Protests/9dc51ee8e578446c978cb9fdba55f217/35/0">AP Photo/Andrew Harnik</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A gaggle of young activists recently paid Dianne Feinstein a visit at the senator’s San Francisco office, imploring her to support the <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/431238-kids-confront-feinstein-over-green-new-deal">Green New Deal</a> framework for confronting climate change. She responded by explaining the complicated legislative process, emphasizing her decades of experience and promising to pursue a considerably more modest approach to confronting climate change with a better shot at passage in the Senate.</p>
<p>The lawmaker tried to come across as sympathetic, yet sounded condescending in a short video clip that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/22/politics/feinstein-video-sunrise-movement-kids/index.html">quickly went viral</a>, eliciting a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/22/dianne-feinstein-criticized-arguing-kids-over-green-new-deal/2956607002/">stream of criticism</a>. A <a href="https://youtu.be/cd3H1boPIIE">longer version</a> told a more nuanced story, including why she believes her own “<a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2019/02/26/document_pm_01.pdf">responsible resolution</a>” has a better chance of passage.</p>
<p>It’s easy to understand why Feinstein’s confrontation went viral. Saying “no” to earnest children who see their futures in jeopardy makes politicians look callous. </p>
<p>Although the advent of social media has made it easier for millions to witness these awkward encounters, there is nothing new about kids engaging in grassroots activism. And based on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EzRzZwgAAAAJ&hl=en">my research about social movements</a>, I find that today’s young activists have a lot in common with the leaders of earlier youth movements.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eIebWywFfNw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This clip of Sen. Dianne Feinstein arguing with a group of students about climate policy went viral.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young people often appear at the front lines of social change for three main reasons.</p>
<h2>1. Passionate about causes</h2>
<p>First, young people may refuse to ignore injustices or wait patiently when they feel <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/soc4.12465">passionately about a cause</a>. That means they’re <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0891241606293608">more apt to take risks</a>.</p>
<p>During the civil rights era, Ernest Green, Thelma Mothershed and seven other children known as the “<a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration">Little Rock Nine</a>” followed federal troops past jeering crowds of white teens to integrate Central High School in Arkansas in 1957. </p>
<p>More than 60 years later, the dean of students at a public high school less than an hour from Little Rock <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/03/19/students-paddled-public-school-staff-after-participating-walkout-arkansas/439141002/">paddled three high school students</a> for walking out of school to protest gun violence. </p>
<p>In both instances, young activists took risks that would scare off most adults.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262792/original/file-20190307-82684-12zx1z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The nine African-American students who entered segregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 were escorted by troops.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Arkansas-United-/7ce4d39339e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/2/1">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Dramatic images</h2>
<p>Second, politically engaged young people can create dramatic and appealing images to dramatize their cause. That’s what happened when <a href="https://www.biography.com/news/black-history-birmingham-childrens-crusade-1963-video">Martin Luther King Jr.</a> put schoolchildren at the front of a march for civil rights through Birmingham, Alabama. He surely knew they were likely to face <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/birmingham-campaign">police willing to use firehoses</a> and dogs to disperse the crowds.</p>
<p>The visuals horrified the nation and inspired more action not only in the streets but in Congress – which passed the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> soon after that showdown.</p>
<p>Similarly, Jefferson County, Colorado high school students <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2014/09/24/hundreds-of-jeffco-students-walk-out-in-largest-school-board-protest/">walked out of school</a> in 2014 to campaign against their new school board’s promise to stop offering an advanced placement course in American history because these officials said its curriculum undermined patriotism. Some of the students must have read ahead in the text, for they carried placards with slogans like “<a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/09/23/jeffco-students-plan-to-protest-history-proposal/">There is nothing more patriotic than protest</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262812/original/file-20190307-82661-zuenk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students walked out of school when the Jefferson County School Board in Colorado sought to change the AP US history curriculum in 2014.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Student-Protest-US-History/dcd29b434b7a44c9bec8025612682718/50/0">AP Photo/Brennan Linsley</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Dilemmas for authorities</h2>
<p>Third, dismissing or attacking young activists who appear earnest and sincere can prove perilous.</p>
<p>When Birmingham’s children’s march was met with police violence, national attention forced civil rights to the top of the White House’s agenda. It also cost <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/eugene-bull-connor-21402055">Bull Connor</a>, Birmingham’s public safety commissioner, his job.</p>
<p>Before Feinstein’s awkward encounter went viral, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/laura-ingraham-david-hogg-colleges-ucla-uc-santa-barbara-twitter-parkland-864992">Fox News host Laura Ingraham</a> experienced a similar snafu when she ridiculed gun-control activist <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2018/03/27/parkland-leader-david-hogg-rejected-colleges-emma-gonzalez/">David Hogg</a>. The pundit teased the Parkland shooting survivor after he didn’t get into any of the four California universities at the top of his list, a move widely perceived as bullying.</p>
<p>Hogg’s youth made it tough for Ingraham to attack him. His political savvy made it even tougher when he tweeted the names of Ingraham’s sponsors, and suggested his supporters boycott her show. Ingraham <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/laura-ingraham-apologizes-upset-hurt-caused-comments-parkland/story?id=54102676">eventually apologized</a>, but only after losing some sponsors.</p>
<p>Hogg won this political standoff and even more. He <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/12/22/parkland-survivor-david-hogg-harvard-mocked-fox-host/2396762002/">will enroll at Harvard University</a> in the fall of 2019 – along with Jaclyn Corin, a fellow Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School graduate and <a href="https://marchforourlives.com/mission-statement">March for Our Lives</a> co-founder. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1076466561630785537"}"></div></p>
<h2>Sunrise movement</h2>
<p>The young activists who caught Feinstein off-guard, and another group that got arrested for trying to discuss climate policy with <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/431430-dozens-of-climate-protesters-storm-mcconnells-office-over-green">Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell</a>, belong to the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/dianne-feinstein-video-climate-change-sunrise-movement/583501/">Sunrise Movement</a>. The relatively new group describes itself as an “army of young people.” </p>
<p>Like other youngsters before them, its members claim to have greater stake in forceful environmental action than their elders. Unlike many of the adults who call the shots on policy, they expect to be around to face the consequences should their leaders keep failing to take <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-next-two-years-are-critical-for-the-paris-climate-deals-survival-107931">forceful action on climate change</a>. </p>
<p>American kids and young adults are making these claims not only in the halls of Congress but also in court. More than 20 young people are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit, <a href="https://theconversation.com/these-kids-and-young-adults-want-their-day-in-court-on-climate-change-105277">Juliana v. U.S.</a>, that aims to force the government to slash the emissions that cause climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/262250/original/file-20190305-48450-1uflb1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/anderspangpang/status/1102990877306355725">Effekt/Anders Hellberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Young people around the world, led by Swedish teen <a href="https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg">Greta Thunberg</a>, are also organizing “climate strikes,” where young people will skip school to discuss the urgency of doing more about climate change and protest how little progress the authorities have made.</p>
<p>On March 15, tens of thousands of U.S. children plan to take part in a global action by <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/2/21/18233206/greta-thunberg-student-school-strike-climate-change">walking out of schools</a>. Large numbers of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davekeating/2019/02/07/in-belgium-students-are-striking-for-the-climate-and-theyve-forced-a-minister-to-resign/#61c7afb43fc7">European students are already staging similar events</a>.</p>
<p>Some critics are arguing that these young activists are serving as pawns of manipulative adults who are eager to use fresh faces to tout their own cause. The writer <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/dianne-feinstein-video-climate-change-sunrise-movement/583501/">Caitlin Flanagan</a> dismissed them as “jackbooted tots and aggrieved teenagers” and Feinstein referred to “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/feinstein-green-new-deal-activists-799240/">whoever sent you here</a>” during her brush with the Sunrise Movement.</p>
<p>But as sociologist Rebecca Klatch has found, teen activists have historically tended to echo their parents’ views authentically, just with <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520217140/a-generation-divided">more energy and enthusiasm</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David S. Meyer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These youngsters have ample fervor, and they are dramatically photogenic. Dismissing them as being fake or lightweight can spell trouble for members of the establishment.David S. Meyer, Professor of Sociology, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020932018-08-27T20:17:57Z2018-08-27T20:17:57Z1968 protests at Columbia University called attention to ‘Gym Crow’ and got worldwide attention<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233695/original/file-20180827-75972-19v0afj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black power militant H. Rap Brown and Stokely Carmichael (right) appeared at a sit-in protest at Columbia University in New York City on April 26, 1968.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-New-York-United-/1aea42ff04f2da11af9f0014c2589dfb/287/0">AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>“If they build the first story, blow it up. If they sneak back at night and build three stories, burn it down. And if they get nine stories built, it’s yours. Take it over, and maybe we’ll let them in on the weekends.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is what <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/the-story-of-sncc/">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</a> and Black Panther Party affiliate <a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/h-rap-brown/">H. Rap Brown</a> told a crowd of Harlem residents at a community rally in February 1967.</p>
<p>They were there to protest Columbia University’s construction of a gymnasium in Morningside Park, the only land separating the Ivy League university from the historic black working-class neighborhood. The gym, along with the discovery that Columbia was affiliated with the <a href="https://www.ida.org/">Institute for Defense Analysis</a> – a national consortium of flagship universities and research organizations that provided strategy and weapons research to the U.S. Department of Defense – stirred students to protest for more decision-making power at their elite university. </p>
<p>When considering the key events of 1968, such as the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/tet-offensive">Tet Offensive</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/01/1968s-chaos-the-assassinations-riots-and-protests-that-defined-our-world/?utm_term=.3eae1a9710a2">assassinations of national leaders</a>, demonstrations at the <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/protests-at-democratic-national-convention-in-chicago">Democratic National Convention</a> and the <a href="http://time.com/3880999/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/">Olympics</a>, as well international events concerning democracy, the Columbia uprisings merit attention.</p>
<h2>Issues converge on campus</h2>
<p>As I detail in my book – <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/69erx5xt9780252034527.html">“Harlem vs. Columbia University: Black Student Power in the Late 1960s”</a> – all the issues of the 1960s and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Left">New Left</a> collided on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia. Students contended with the war in Vietnam, institutional racism, the generational divide, sexism, environmentalism and urban renewal – all while trying to find dates and attend classes.</p>
<p>Everything came to a head on April 23, 1968 – just weeks after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. That was when members of the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society hosted a <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680424-01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------">rally</a> on campus to decry the war – and, what many considered the racist gym in Morningside Park. Members of the Students’ Afro-American Society, or SAS, and Columbia varsity athletes – known as jocks – were in attendance as well. SAS followers showed up to resume an earlier fight they had with the jocks who supported the construction of the gymnasium.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revolution-starts-on-campus-102243">Revolution Starts on Campus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some students had been working with Harlem community groups. They saw the gym as a symbol of the university’s “power” over a defenseless and poverty-stricken black neighborhood. They joined local politicians who opposed the gym for a myriad of reasons, including its concrete footprint in a green park and the inability of the community to have access to the entire structure once built.</p>
<h2>Troubled relations</h2>
<p>The situation was, of course, complex. Columbia had long been a contentious neighbor to Harlem and Morningside Heights. The campus gym was decrepit and prevented the university from competing with its Ivy peers effectively in terms of facilities and space. Regarding the park, Columbia had constructed softball fields that initially community members could use. By 1968, however, only campus affiliates could access the fields. Then, white faculty members had been mugged in the park.</p>
<p>The university, seeking to expand in the postwar period, purchased US$280 million of land, mortgages and residential buildings in Harlem and Morningside Heights. That resulted in the <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/69erx5xt9780252034527.html">eviction of nearly 10,000 residents</a> in a decade, 85 percent of whom were black or Puerto Rican.</p>
<p>Columbia acted in coordination with Morningside Heights, Inc., a confederacy of educational and religious institutions in the neighborhood that also sought to “renew” the area to serve their mostly white patrons. David Rockefeller, grandson of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, acted as MHI’s first president. Columbia was the lead institution.</p>
<p>Despite being close to a black neighborhood, the university admitted few black students and employed a handful of black instructors. For instance, as I report in my book, in the 1964-1965 school year, there were only 35 black students out of 2,500 students enrolled in Columbia’s College of Arts and Sciences, and just one tenured black professor. By spring 1968, there were more than 150 black students enrolled. </p>
<p>On April 23, protesting students attempted to take over the administration building but were repelled by campus security. Then, they walked to the gym construction site where they tore down fencing and physically confronted police. From the park, they returned to campus where they finally succeeded in taking over a classroom building, Hamilton Hall. In doing so, they surrounded the dean of the college, Henry Coleman, who chose to stay in his office with his staff. To “protect” Coleman, <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680424-01.2.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------">several jocks stood guard</a> outside his door.</p>
<h2>Clashes with police</h2>
<p>What started as a racially integrated demonstration of students took a turn in the late night when H. Rap Brown and several community activists showed up at the invitation of the Students’ Afro-American Society. The student group, Brown and the community activists agreed that black people solely should occupy Hamilton Hall and that white activists should commandeer other buildings. The white demonstrators accommodated, leaving Hamilton and taking over four other buildings. That forced Columbia officials to contend with not just a student protest but a black action on campus at that height of Black Power Movement. Incidentally, the community activists removed and replaced the jocks as sentries of the dean’s office.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233697/original/file-20180827-75996-1t09zhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants of a student sit-in assist each other in climbing up into the offices of Columbia University President Grayson Kirk on April 24, 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-New-York-United-/e464d889dde6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/297/0">AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To the ire of many white university administrators of the period, Stokely Carmichael of SNCC and the Black Panthers fame showed up to explain – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1968/04/27/archives/facultys-effort-fails-to-resolve-columbia-dispute-protest-leader.html">through the press</a> – that the university deal either with the student activists on campus or militants coming from Harlem. This insinuated the tone of the demonstrations would change drastically. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated less than three weeks before. From offices in Morningside Heights, Columbia administrators had watched Harlem burn as residents mourned and reacted to the black leader’s death. The only thing that separated the elite white institution from angry black rebels was the park in which the university was building a gymnasium <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/69erx5xt9780252034527.html">against the will of many community members</a>.</p>
<p>In consultation with New York Mayor John Lindsay, Columbia administrators chose to end the demonstrations by calling 1,000 New York police officers to clear the five occupied campus buildings on April 30. <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680430-01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------">Chaos and brutality prevailed</a>. As the NAACP and other Harlem community organizations stood watch, black students vacated Hamilton, which SAS had renamed Malcolm X Hall, and were arrested peacefully. In the building that national Students for a Democratic Society leader and <a href="http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/exhibits/show/exhibit/origins-of-students-for-a-demo/port_huron_statement">Port Huron Statement</a> author Tom Hayden occupied, police and demonstrators collided physically. One of the most iconic documents of the postwar period, the 1962 Port Huron Statement outlined the need for young people to be in the vanguard of the movement to eradicate racism and grind the military-industrial complex to a halt; it centered the notion of participatory democracy, which called for greater inclusion of the citizenry in decision-making. In other buildings, students found themselves on the hurt end of police batons when they resisted arrest.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233699/original/file-20180827-75978-mpc9p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police rush toward student protesters outside Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library on April 30, 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Columbia-Protests-Anniversary/76748e36da3c4dac84fd27e87105c29f/9/0">AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Worldwide attention</h2>
<p>In opening the door to violence, the university turned what was a local matter into an <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/the-students-behind-the-1968-columbia-uprising">international story</a> and radicalized moderate students and neighborhood residents. Young radicals abroad learned of “Gym Crow” and university-sponsored defense research. In solidarity, they supported the Columbia student activists’ causes and chanted “two, three, many Columbias” – a refrain that gained popularity among American student protesters.</p>
<p>After the demonstrations in April, ensuing violent demonstrations in May, and a <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680501-01&e=23-04-1968-30-06-1968--en-20--1--txt-txIN-Strike------">six-week student strike</a>, the university did not build the gym in the park and <a href="http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19680920-01.2.11&srpos=8&e=23-04-1968-30-12-1968--en-20--1--txt-txIN-IDA------">renounced its membership</a> in the Institute for Defense Analysis.</p>
<p>In my view, elements of the 1968 Columbia rebellion are inspiring and instructional for today’s students, protesters and community residents. As <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/10/atlanta-super-gentrification-eminent-domain">gentrification threatens</a> the homes of poor black people in urban areas today, activists should recall that 50 years earlier young people believed they could cut their university’s ties to war research and prevent a prestigious white American institution from expanding into black spaces at the same time. They succeeded.</p>
<p><em>Our new podcast “<a href="https://heatandlightpod.com">Heat and Light</a>” features Prof. Bradley and Columbia University’s Michael Kazin discussing this issue in depth.</em></p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/heat-and-light/id1424521855?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="134" height="34"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9oZWF0YW5kbGlnaHRwb2QuY29tL2ZlZWQucnNz"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="134" height="34"></a> <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=221807&refid=stpr"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="116" height="34"></a> <a href="https://radiopublic.com/heat-and-light-WYDE55"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="105" height="34"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/History-Podcasts/Heat-and-Light-p1149068/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="86" height="34"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefan M. Bradley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 1968 protests at Columbia University led the institution to abandon a gym project that residents considered racist and cut off its defense work – and generated worldwide attention in the process.Stefan M. Bradley, Chair, Department of African American Studies, Loyola Marymount UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/937132018-03-23T19:37:32Z2018-03-23T19:37:32ZMarch for Our Lives awakens the spirit of student and media activism of the 1960s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211772/original/file-20180323-54863-b9vifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students rally in front of the White House in Washington, March 14, 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://marchforourlives.com/mission-statement/">student movement</a> against gun violence is receiving <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/03/02/the-parkland-shooting-is-different-the-news-coverage-proves-it/">sustained news coverage</a> and was instrumental in building momentum around the March For Our Lives Rally Saturday March 24 in Washington D.C. and other U.S. cities.</p>
<p>Students are using social and news media to build momentum and advocate for legislation in the wake of a Feb. 14 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/us/parkland-school-shooting.html">shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida</a>. A former student opened fire in the school, killing 17 people. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"975764179616374785"}"></div></p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qKWYg20AAAAJ&hl=en">an expert</a> on the history of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2017.1335607">youth journalism and media activism</a> that blossomed in the 1960s, I see today’s students as part of a continuum that began with that movement.</p>
<p>Despite not all being old enough to vote, Parkland students are putting pressure on government and private corporations to meet their demands.</p>
<p>Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/7026/BillText/er/PDF">a gun safety bill</a> into law on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/09/us/florida-gov-scott-gun-bill/index.html">March 9</a>, while companies like Delta Airlines and Hertz have <a href="http://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/">cut ties with the National Rifle Association</a>. The student movement is a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<h2>Students create their own media</h2>
<p>Student journalists used media as a key tool for activism in the widespread social movements of the 1960s, journalism scholar Kaylene Dial Armstrong writes <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498541169/How-Student-Journalists-Report-Campus-Unrest">in her book</a> “How Journalists Report Campus Unrest.” One notable student protest happened in Washington, D.C., <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2018/03/demand-answer-howard-university-protest-50/slide/1/">50 years ago</a>.</p>
<p>In the spring of 1968, student demonstrators occupied the administration building at <a href="https://www2.howard.edu/">Howard University</a>, a historically black school in Washington to protest racial inequality. Starting on March 19, more than 1,000 students shut down administrative operations at the university until March 23. </p>
<p>One of the lead organizers, Adrienne Manns, was the editor-in-chief of Howard’s student newspaper, <a href="http://thehilltoponline.com/">The Hilltop</a>. The Hilltop supported the protesters from the outset. </p>
<p>“It is the responsibility of The Hilltop to present issues and suggest solutions,” <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498541169/How-Student-Journalists-Report-Campus-Unrest">read a front-page editorial</a> on March 8, 1968, in the lead-up to the occupation.</p>
<p>The organizers saw the protest as part of the broader <a href="https://wtop.com/dc/2018/03/demand-answer-howard-university-protest-50/slide/1/">civil rights movement</a> of the 1960s. Armstrong writes that Howard students demanded that the administration make the curriculum more relevant to black students and give them authority over the student paper. The administration met these demands on March 23, and the students ended their occupation.</p>
<p>In 1968, Howard’s student journalists presented these issues and solutions, covering events supporting black pride and identity. They also suggested university-wide reforms. Suggestions included a black-centric curriculum, a work-study program allowing students to connect with the surrounding community and more student control over campus activities.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498541169/How-Student-Journalists-Report-Campus-Unrest">Hilltop’s journalists</a> provided deeper reporting that year on issues than the objective and detached approach the professional media gave student protests. Manns demonstrated that student journalists could draw on their experiences as activists, using media to tell alternative narratives, build public support and create change.</p>
<p>Later in 1968, as I explore in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2017.1335607">my own research</a>, university students across Ontario, Canada, joined journalists who were on strike to advocate for union recognition. At the time, the <a href="https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/">Peterborough Examiner</a> in Ontario was owned by multinational media corporation Thomson Newspapers – today known as <a href="https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en.html">Thomson Reuters</a>. Hundreds involved in the student movement from at least six universities joined employees on the picket line. Together, they started a local off-campus newspaper, The Free Press, which they published for nearly two months.</p>
<p>The Free Press <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2017.1335607">described itself</a> as a local “alternative to the Examiner” and a “community-conscious newspaper like the Peterborough Examiner was before Thomson took over.” </p>
<p>Thomson Newspapers continued publishing the Examiner during the strike, but it carried little reporting on the strike and other local information. Some Free Press articles were focused on the strike, criticizing Thomson Newspapers and the profit-driven press. But most articles reported local news on a range of topics, including municipal politics and sports. </p>
<p>The Free Press helped fill a gap in local news coverage about the strike. The alternative paper also helped the Thomson journalists put pressure on Thomson to negotiate with them. While Thomson didn’t meet all of their demands, the journalists ended their strike on May 6, 1969, and returned to work.</p>
<h2>Parkland students produce multimedia journalism</h2>
<p>Today, students have more media tools at their disposal than in 1968. During the Parkland shooting, student <a href="https://twitter.com/davidhogg111">David Hogg</a>, 17, took out his phone and started filming and interviewing classmates. He was hiding in a school closet at the time, as the gunman walked the halls.</p>
<p>“If I was going to die, I wanted to die doing what I love, and that’s storytelling,” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/17/us/david-hogg-profile-florida-shooting/index.html">Hogg said</a>. </p>
<p>People around the world also got an inside view of the school shooting from students who posted photos and video clips on <a href="https://www.snapchat.com/">Snapchat</a>. Soon after the shooting began, Snapchat published a featured story titled “High School Shooting” on its new desktop feature called <a href="https://mashable.com/2018/02/15/snap-maps-high-school-shooting/#P7tYzN2qTkqC">Snap Maps</a>. The feature was released two days before the shooting and consisted of a group of snaps submitted by users in that location.</p>
<p>Students Nikhita Nookala and Christy Ma, both 17, published their account of the shooting in <a href="http://eagleeye.news/news/violent-shooting-occurs-at-msd-killing-17-and-wounding-15/">The Eagle Eye</a>, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s newspaper. Unlike journalists at commercial news outlets, Nookala and Ma drew on their unique experiences as <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/parkland-school-shooting.php">journalists and survivors</a> to build trust with community members and legitimize their coverage.</p>
<h2>The revolution will be tweeted</h2>
<p>The Parkland students have used social media <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/us/parkland-students-social-media.html">on a daily basis</a> since the shooting.</p>
<p>Student organizer <a href="https://twitter.com/emma4change">Emma González</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/us/gonzalez-nra-twitter/index.html">created a Twitter account on Feb. 18</a> — four days after the Parkland shooting. Now she has 1.2 million followers. She’s using Twitter to share messages of solidarity and to ridicule politicians about gun control.</p>
<p>“People always say, ‘Get off your phones,’ but social media is our weapon,” says student organizer <a href="http://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/">Jaclyn Corin</a>. “Without it, the movement wouldn’t have spread this fast.”</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the shooting, another student organizer <a href="https://twitter.com/cameron_kasky">Cameron Kasky</a> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-survivors-of-parkland-began-the-never-again-movement">used the hashtag #NeverAgain</a>, which has gone viral as a rallying cry for the movement.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"973051360433369088"}"></div></p>
<p>By using various media, the Parkland students have demonstrated they’re <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/young-people-and-the-future-of-news/E73A053188B9C194ADF02FEEA8F94574">politically engaged</a>, despite what some critics say about millennials being <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/allstate/when-it-comes-to-politics-do-millennials-care-about-anything/255/">politically disinterested</a>. In <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/young-people-and-the-future-of-news/E73A053188B9C194ADF02FEEA8F94574">their book</a> “Young People and the Future of News,” researchers Lynn Schofield Clark and Regina Marchi call these practices “connective journalism.” They explain how youth move from interest in an issue to political participation in a social media age.</p>
<p>History demonstrates that student-led media could provide a platform for youth to express their opinions, control their messages and facilitate political participation. </p>
<p>Seen in this light, it’s important to recognize how young people are using social and news media as a powerful mobilizing tool, like students involved in March for Our Lives are doing. For the Parkland teens, media provide a weapon to advocate for gun reform and <a href="http://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/">mobilize young people to vote</a>. Although students used media for activism in the 1960s, students now have more tools to quickly spread their messages widely and, in doing so, shape national conversations.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on March 24 to include a reference to the rally taking place.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Errol Salamon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Young activists are using journalism to advance their cause. Though their work echoes student activists and journalists of the 1960s, they use new tools not available to the activists of that era.Errol Salamon, Postdoctoral Researcher and Visting Scholar in Communication, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/821802017-08-16T16:22:38Z2017-08-16T16:22:38ZThe end of South African universities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182060/original/file-20170815-29240-lzkmg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa needs reflective leadership at its universities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Atherstone/flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jonathan Jansen, vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State in South Africa until a year ago, has written a book on the country’s higher education sector. <a href="http://www.tafelberg.com/Books/19964">As by Fire – The End of the South African University</a> is one of a number of recent books that set out to make sense of the current crisis in South African universities. </p>
<p>The crisis began in early 2015 with the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2015-03-26-rhodesmustfall-protest-spreads-to-other-campuses">#RhodesMustFall protests</a> and gained momentum over the course of 2015. These protests fuelled, and eventually overtook the national <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/world/africa/fees-must-fall-anatomy-of-the-student-protests-in-south-africa.html">#FeesMustFall movement</a>. The underlying economic, cultural and political issues that drove the protests remain largely unresolved. </p>
<p>As by Fire is structured around three main questions: What in fact happened? Why did it happen? And what does the protest crisis mean for the future of South African universities? </p>
<p>Jansen draws on his own experience as well as interviews with 11 vice-chancellors in the country. His conclusion is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a nutshell, there is no future, and </p>
<p>What we are witnessing is a full system meltdown.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are several problems with Jansen’s apocalyptic thesis. </p>
<h2>An irresponsible thesis</h2>
<p>Firstly, for a scholar of Jansen’s calibre, the analysis lacks a broad comparative perspective. His main reference point is the story of failing universities on the rest of the continent. </p>
<p>Jansen doesn’t make any comparisons to <a href="http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/812719/">student protests across the globe</a> – in Hong Kong, Canada, Chile, the UK, the US and Turkey, to name a few. These were also characterised by occupations of leaderless movements, threats of violence by police and militant students, reassertion of identity politics in curriculum and political stalemate.</p>
<p>A more thorough comparative analysis of what is happening in South Africa in relation to continental and global trends could have led to a more constructive conclusion that posed a range of future scenarios instead of a single “no future” story.</p>
<p>The more serious problem with Jansen’s “no future” thesis is that it’s irresponsible. Someone of Jansen’s profile has tremendous power to shape the narrative. And how South Africans interpret the events of the past two years shapes how the sector will go forward. In other words, his conclusion has consequences. Why would academics stay if they believed Jansen’s predictions with the certainty that he projects them? Why would students apply? Why would donors invest? </p>
<p>In the final few paragraphs Jansen attempts to wave a small flag of hope by appealing to civic action under the banners of free education for the poor and the right to education for all. This is an unconvincing attempt to end the book on a happier note.</p>
<h2>An important perspective on leadership</h2>
<p>What the book does offer is a view of university leaders under crisis – a close-up, zoomed-in, largely unedited perspective of 11 VC’s “under fire”, in some cases, literally. This is why the book will be of interest to anyone in higher education management.</p>
<p>The extensive literature of higher education leadership and management needs more of this kind of “in the trenches” study – leaders describing in their own words what it feels like to be flattened between a rock and a hard place, managing competing and contradictory demands from all sides while always under the watch of an unsympathetic media. </p>
<p>The book presents a view of leaders in a lose-lose situation, required to make on-the-spot judgement calls. The reader gets a close-up view of the ways in which they worked tirelessly to defend their institutions and were battered from every side. And Jansen is right to expose the extreme pressure and the personal costs that the VCs and their families paid. The accounts expose both their vulnerability and their resilience. </p>
<p>Jansen concludes by arguing that what’s needed more than ever before is </p>
<blockquote>
<p>university leadership that is both compassionate in speaking to the student heart and competent in leading our universities in a demanding world of teaching, research, and public duty.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The missed opportunity of the book is that Jansen doesn’t explicitly extract from his interviewees what that compassionate competence looks like. In retrospect, what do they think they did right? What do they regret? What did they learn as leaders in crisis about the complexities of leading a university community at this stage of South Africa’s democracy?</p>
<p>Rebecca Solnit, American activist and author of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/15/rebecca-solnit-hope-in-the-dark-new-essay-embrace-unknown">Hope in the Dark</a>, writes of the times we are living in that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>this is an extraordinary time full of vital, transformative movements that could not be foreseen. It’s also a nightmarish time. Full engagement requires the ability to perceive both. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>What South Africa’s universities need from their leaders now is not prophecies of doom, but deeper reflection on the transformative potential of this difficult historical moment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82180/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suellen Shay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Former vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen argues that there is no future for South African universities.Suellen Shay, Dean and Associate Professor, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/768402017-05-08T00:53:40Z2017-05-08T00:53:40ZCan we talk about free speech on campus?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168146/original/file-20170505-19116-14rrwdy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students protested at UC Berkeley on both sides: in opposition to Ann Coulter and in support of free speech.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent cancellation of an appearance by conservative commentator Ann Coulter at the University of California at Berkeley resulted in <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-berkeley-ann-coulter-protests-20170427-story.html">confrontations between protestors</a>. It’s the latest in a series of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/21/auburn-berkeley-incidents-illustrate-how-difficult-it-public-colleges-bar-speakers">heated disputes</a> that have taken place involving controversial speakers on campus.</p>
<p>One of us is a researcher of higher education legal issues (Neal) and one is a senior administrator in higher education (Brandi). Together, we’re interested in how institutions facilitate free speech while also supporting students. </p>
<p>From our different perspectives, we see two closely connected questions arise: What legal rules must colleges and universities follow when it comes to speech on campus? And what principles and educational values should guide university actions concerning free speech? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168162/original/file-20170505-19120-1wa812a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A student protest at the University of Minnesota targeted a mural that advocated for the building of a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/MuNQgQ">Fibonacci Blue / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Key legal standards</h2>
<p>When it comes to the legal requirements for free speech on campus, a key initial consideration is whether an institution is public or private. </p>
<p>Public colleges and universities, as governmental institutions, are obligated to uphold <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992#131">First Amendment</a> protections for free speech. In contrast, private institutions may choose to adopt speech policies similar to their public counterparts, but they <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/27/politics/first-amendment-explainer-trnd/">aren’t subject to constitutional speech requirements</a>. California proves a notable exception: State law requires private secular colleges and universities to follow <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=EDC&sectionNum=94367.">First Amendment standards in relation to students</a>.</p>
<p>For those colleges that are subject to constitutional speech rules, what does this mean?</p>
<p>For starters, an institution does not have to make all places on campus, such as offices or libraries, available to speakers or protesters. Universities may also <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7188907281892258516&q=forum+institutions+not+required+same+access+for+non-students+as+students&hl=en&as_sdt=6,25">provide less campus access to individuals unaffiliated with the institution</a>, thus potentially limiting the presence on campus of activists or protesters who are not official members of the university community.</p>
<p>Regardless of these limitations on free speech, once an institution categorizes a campus space as accessible for students or permits its use for a specific purpose – such as musical or theatrical performances – campus officials <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/forums">must not favor particular views or messages</a> in granting access.</p>
<p>Some campus areas, such as plazas or courtyards, either by tradition or designation, constitute open places for speech and expression, including for the general public. Colleges and universities may impose reasonable rules to regulate the use of these kinds of open campus forums (e.g., restrictions on the length of the event, blocking roadways or the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2205493593660669069&q=ward+v+rock+against+racism&hl=en&as_sdt=6,25">use of amplification devices</a>). However, a guiding First Amendment principle is that institutions cannot impose restrictions based on the content of a speaker’s message.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168159/original/file-20170505-19135-1q9xmmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=648&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With a long history of civil disobedience, California has laws in place to protect the free speech of all students – even those at secular private universities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/9jBFcL">Thomas Hawk / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Free speech zones</h2>
<p>A central point of conflict over student speech and activism involves <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-bc-us--campus-free-speech-zones-20170328-story.html">rules at some institutions</a> that restrict student speech and related activities (such as protests, distributing fliers or petition gathering) to specified areas or zones on campus. </p>
<p>Students have argued that such “free speech zones” are overly restrictive and violate the First Amendment. For instance, a community college student in Los Angeles alleges in a current lawsuit that his First Amendment rights were violated when he was allowed to distribute copies of the U.S Constitution <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-essential-education-updates-southern-pierce-college-student-files-lawsuit-1490737382-htmlstory.html">only in a designated free speech zone</a>. Virginia, Missouri, Arizona and Colorado (<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/2017/04/04/free-speech-zones-abolished-on-colorado-campuses/">as of this April</a>) have legislation that prohibits public institutions from enforcing such zones. At least six other states <a href="http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2017/03/states-seek-to-scrap-free-speech-zones-219089">are considering</a> similar laws.</p>
<p>In our view, legislative and litigation efforts may curtail the use of designated free speech zones for students in much of public higher education. In the meantime, increasing resistance could be enough to prompt many institutions to voluntarily end their use.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168155/original/file-20170505-19112-1a15e20.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Replicas of Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio face off in the free speech zone on the campus of the University of Colorado before the 2015 Republican presidential debate. Free speech zones are no longer permitted in Colorado.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/David Zalubowski</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beyond legal requirements</h2>
<p>While legal compliance is certainly an important factor in shaping policy and practice around free speech, campus leaders should perhaps have a different consideration foremost on their minds: namely, the institutional mission of education. </p>
<p>Most students arrive on our nation’s campuses to <a href="https://www.heri.ucla.edu/monographs/TheAmericanFreshman2016.pdf">acquire a degree, discover who they are and determine what they want to be</a>. Students grow in myriad ways – <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118462688.html#">cognitively, morally and psychosocially</a> – while in college.</p>
<p>This personal development cannot fully take place without <a href="https://theconversation.com/helping-student-activists-move-past-us-vs-them-76838">exposure to opposing views</a>. To that end, students should be encouraged to <a href="https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/plea-civil-discourse-needed-academys-leadership">express themselves civilly</a>, listen to critiques of their ideas and think deeply about their convictions. Then, in response, students can express themselves again in light of new and opposing ideas.</p>
<p>This process of engagement, productive discourse and critical reflection can <a href="https://www.knightfoundation.org/media/uploads/publication_pdfs/FreeSpeech_campus.pdf">create tension and conflict</a> for many. The reality is that protected free speech is <a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/16/05/safe-space-vs-free-speech">not always viewed as good or productive speech</a> by all members of the campus community.</p>
<p>However, rather than labeling students as <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2016/12/04/who-you-calling-snowflake/">fragile “snowflakes”</a> or pressuring institutions to <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/first-amendment-advocates-give-republican-campus-speech-bill-mixed-reviews/article_f5c168d8-28f0-5b0e-8ee8-f12ff38b3731.html">punish students who wish to challenge campus speakers</a>, in our view, there’s a better approach: Why not take seriously students’ objections to controversial speakers – <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-chemerinsky-gillman-free-speech-on-campus-20160331-story.html">support them and engage with them</a> on how to reconcile their concerns and institutional commitments to free speech? </p>
<p>Free speech issues on campus are often messy and can make both students and campus officials uneasy. But discomfort also presents an opportunity for growth. We believe that educational institutions have a responsibility to foster debate and to help students gain experience in processing and responding to messages they find objectionable. </p>
<p>And so, when controversies arise, campus officials – at times stretching their own comfort zones around issues of student speech and activism – can embrace the educational opportunities they present.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What legal rules must colleges and universities follow when it comes to speech on campus? And, beyond legal requirements, what is a school’s obligation to protect – or limit – free speech?Neal H. Hutchens, Professor of Higher Education, University of MississippiBrandi Hephner LaBanc, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, University of MississippiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/768382017-05-04T02:04:48Z2017-05-04T02:04:48ZHelping student activists move past ‘us vs. them’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167587/original/file-20170502-17248-re9rm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">High school and college students protested Trump's inauguration at Seattle Central College in January.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Elaine Thompson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Protest turned violent on the <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/berkeley-cancels-a-talk-by-milo-yiannopoulos-as-violent-protests-break-out/116694">Berkeley</a> and <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/A-Scufflea-Professors/239412">Middlebury</a> campuses; students shouted down speakers at <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/21/shouting-down-controversial-speaker-mcmaster-raises-new-concerns-about-academic">MacMaster University</a> and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/10/protest-over-speakers-views-race-and-crime-prevents-event-taking-place-planned">UCLA</a> and blocked entry to a talk at <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/10/protest-over-speakers-views-race-and-crime-prevents-event-taking-place-planned">Claremont McKenna</a>: These are among the many recent incidents that have students, faculty and outside observers <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/16/ideological-odd-couple-robert-george-and-cornel-west-issue-joint-statement-against">searching for ways</a> to debate controversial issues on campus without dogmatism and <a href="http://www.psysr.org/about/pubs_resources/groupthink%20overview.htm">groupthink</a>.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of these incidents, campus protesters are caricatured as “<a href="http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/berkeley-cancels-a-talk-by-milo-yiannopoulos-as-violent-protests-break-out/116694">criminals and thugs</a>” by their opposition. Protesters, in turn, portray their critics as nothing but <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/10/protest-over-speakers-views-race-and-crime-prevents-event-taking-place-planned">cogs in the machine of the status quo</a>. Sadly, these caricatures feed into what journalist <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/juliet-eilperin">Juliet Eilperin</a> has called our national “<a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742551190/Fight-Club-Politics-How-Partisanship-is-Poisoning-the-U.S.-House-of-Representatives">fight club politics</a>”: a black-and-white, us-versus-them outlook that has risen since the mid-1990s. </p>
<p>As a researcher in ethics, I’ve been especially interested in how people can <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=21877">make wiser decisions and communicate more effectively</a>. Thankfully, campus activists are targeting a lot of the unfortunate learned behaviors that inhibit mutual growth and underlie botched moral decision-making: <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/228365/democracy-in-black-by-eddie-s-glaude-jr/9780804137430/">racism</a>, xenophobia, classism, sexism and gender discrimination.</p>
<p>But much of campus protest – as well as pushback against it – is characterized by a sort of “moral fundamentalism,” a my-way-or-the-highway approach to right and wrong. That’s a recipe for failed communication and bad decision-making.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167588/original/file-20170502-17251-u7q9jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A demonstration in February opposing the scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos on the University of California at Berkeley campus turned violent when protesters hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and started a fire.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ben Margot</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A moral fundamentalist pledge of allegiance</h2>
<p>The term “<a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo17322899.html">moral fundamentalism</a>” was coined by philosopher and cognitive scientist <a href="https://philosophy.uoregon.edu/profile/markj/">Mark Johnson</a>, and the rejection of moral fundamentalism has entered the political realm through research on <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo19417284.html">democratic communication and decision-making</a>. In that context, a moral fundamentalist can be defined as someone who holds that there’s a single right way to diagnose moral or political problems and a single practical solution to any particular problem.</p>
<p>To clarify this notion, I invite you to be a fly on the wall of one of my philosophy classes. There’s nothing exceptional about my classes, but a peek inside may reveal one of many ways in which colleges struggle to create a better context for constructive discourse and decision-making.</p>
<p>I sometimes ask my students – many of whom are activists – to share examples of people weighing in on a contemporary issue. They might describe people concerned about immigration, race, gender, education or health care. How many of those people, I ask, would knowingly raise their hand and pledge the following? </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There’s a single basis of moral and political life, and this supreme basis determines the right way to proceed. I have access to this supreme basis. When others don’t agree with me, it’s because they have the wrong faith commitments or they aren’t analyzing things properly. Agreement with me is a prerequisite to solving our problems. Consequently, I have nothing to learn about these matters from those who disagree with me. Their participation is at best an irrelevant distraction and at worst an evil to be defeated. My diagnosis of the issue has precisely captured all that is morally or politically relevant. It’s exhaustive, hence beyond revision and reformulation.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After my students and I swap stories about folks who might take such a pledge, we invariably conclude that those people are outnumbered by their counterparts: conservatives, liberals and radicals alike who would reject this outright. Moreover, it quickly becomes clear that this pledge doesn’t speak to the sort of people my students wish to become.</p>
<p>And yet… How many of us habitually decide what’s relevant to an issue without pausing to listen to others? Do we offhandedly dismiss alternative views? However open-minded we may seem to ourselves, do we react to others as though we’re navigating with the one, true moral compass?</p>
<h2>Morality as a one-way street</h2>
<p>Most of us, it turns out, are creatures with some rather embarrassing intellectual habits. Instead of confronting problems with <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oq3POR8FhtgC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148">fine awareness, moral sensitivity and rich responsibility</a>, many people end up with a stark “you’re either with us or against us” mentality. </p>
<p>This mentality approaches morality and politics as a one-way street: Those going the right way (us) feel constantly endangered by a majority (them) coming the wrong way. Yet, as in the aforementioned campus protests, each is convinced that the other has misread the signs!</p>
<p><a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/M/bo17322899.html">Research has shown</a> that such moral fundamentalism can cause people to <a href="http://www.ask-force.org/web/Discourse/Rittel-Dilemmas-General-Theory-Planning-1973.pdf">oversimplify situations</a>, neglect context, assume privileged access to the right way to proceed and <a href="http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo19417284.html">shut off inquiry</a>. It’s also been shown to drive the us-them wedge even deeper, while making it harder for us to achieve justice and other <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7V05fNliu4sC&pg=PA176">social goals</a>.</p>
<p>Still, many Americans arrange their social networks and media communications into an infamous <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/techtank/2016/12/09/inside-the-social-media-echo-chamber/">echo chamber</a> that insulates “us” from having to learn anything new from “them.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167591/original/file-20170502-17251-1e7p85z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167591/original/file-20170502-17251-1e7p85z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167591/original/file-20170502-17251-1e7p85z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167591/original/file-20170502-17251-1e7p85z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167591/original/file-20170502-17251-1e7p85z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167591/original/file-20170502-17251-1e7p85z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167591/original/file-20170502-17251-1e7p85z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Though research tell us that ideological diversity is important, we still arrange our social media networks into something of an echo chamber.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/malaga-spain-november-10-2015-facebook-344233502?src=3mMeagGDQY1RUxgXxF961A-1-98">David M G / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Democratic methods for democratic goals</h2>
<p>I feel we, as a society, have a lot of growing up to do together, and we’re greatly in need of mature social action. </p>
<p>Philosopher, community organizer and Nobel Peace Prize winner <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams-bio.html">Jane Addams</a> argued in her 1922 book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=MRQ2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA133">Peace and Bread in Time of War</a>”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Addams was rejecting the notion – still popular a century later – that there are only two approaches to social action: overcautious liberal reformers or “smash the system” revolutionaries. </p>
<p>But what about situations when neither approach is effective? </p>
<p>Our best shot – Addams said – at achieving democratic goals like justice and freedom is by establishing democratic conditions for problem-solving.</p>
<p>In a university setting, this means debates that are more open, collaborative and productive. If people with different perspectives <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3641681.html">actually talk to each other</a>, they can also learn from each other. That suggests a goal for colleges: Create more conscientious campus communities in which moral fundamentalism withers. </p>
<p>How to do this is of course the most pressing question for faculty, students, staff and administrators. <a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/noddings">Nel Noddings</a>, a prominent philosopher of education, explores how teachers can foster <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/teaching-controversial-issues-9780807757802">critical thinking when discussing controversial issues</a>. This is an essential part of how colleges and universities can create a culture with less moral fundamentalism.</p>
<p>Importantly, such a culture does not diminish the bold resolve to confront oppression. Nor does it imply any suppression of protest. Rather, the withering of moral fundamentalism may refocus us on the complex and nuanced predicaments we face, and it may help students to make wiser decisions – individually and as change agents for a better society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Fesmire will be Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Middlebury College in 2017-18.</span></em></p>When it comes to politics these days, it feels like everything is ‘my way or the highway.’ What can colleges do to end this moral fundamentalism and get students listening to each other?Steven Fesmire, Professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies, Green Mountain CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/512342015-12-04T11:11:01Z2015-12-04T11:11:01ZHow pervasive anti-millennial sentiment has hurt the cause of student protesters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104349/original/image-20151203-29636-1yfakuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The so-called 'lamest' generation has some very real grievances.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-270054716/stock-photo-new-york-city-april-students-adjuncts-union-representatives-gathered-at-columbia.html?src=K2pZdE1oL1o6-BejpdpCUw-1-1">'Protestor' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s now readily apparent that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-have-the-demands-of-black-students-changed-so-little-since-the-1960s-50695">we’re in the midst of a new wave of college student protests</a>. </p>
<p>From the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/protests-university-of-missouri_56401af5e4b0307f2cade647">ConcernedStudent1950</a> movement that led to the ouster of University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe to the <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2015/11/12/million-student-march-debt-tuition/">Million Student March</a> that spanned 110 campuses and called for a debt-free education, campuses across the nation are witnessing an upsurge in student resistance.</p>
<p>The protests have focused on the biased treatment of specific student populations, discriminatory practices and the economic challenges students face. </p>
<p>Interestingly, though, much of the response to these protests has focused less on the issues raised by students and more on the character flaws of the students themselves. The story has been that there must be something wrong with these kids. </p>
<p>Building on anti-millennial rhetoric, student protesters have been described as <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/">overreacting</a>, hysterical, entitled and <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/426853/yale-student-protest-safe-space-political-correctness">coddled</a>. They’ve been accused of <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201509/declining-student-resilience-serious-problem-colleges">lacking resilience</a>, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/the-new-intolerance-of-student-activism-at-yale/414810/">practicing intolerance</a> and <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/11/13/million-student-march-organizer-cant-explain-how-to-pay-for-free-college">being unable to grasp reality</a>. </p>
<p>But the critiques and characterizations of the student protesters actually aren’t grounded in any sort of reality. Instead, public response to student protests has been largely based on anecdote, intolerance and a failure to recognize the very real challenges students face today. </p>
<h2>The “lamest” generation</h2>
<p>The attacks on student protesters shouldn’t come as a surprise. They add to the pervasive view that millennials are spoiled slackers. They’ve even <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/29/from-led-zeppelin-to-breaking-bad-the-lamest-generation.html">been described</a> as “the lamest generation.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Good-Citizen-Generation-Reshaping-American/dp/0872895386/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1443802007&sr=8-5&keywords=russell+dalton">According to political scientist Russell Dalton</a>, millennial Americans may be the most disparaged generation of young people in the nation’s history. Yes, older people have always belittled younger generations. (Even the so-called “Greatest Generation” <a href="http://www.newgeography.com/content/002774-milennial-generation-safe-home">was criticzed</a> for being “over-mothered.”) But Dalton’s research shows that millennials may be the most publicly denounced generation of all time.</p>
<p>In an article about European millennials, Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/may/31/downward-mobility-europe-young-people">wrote</a>, “every generation has its measure of outcasts. However, it doesn’t happen often that the plight of being outcast may stretch to embrace a whole generation.” </p>
<p>Indeed, the problem seems to run deeper than standard-issue generation bashing.</p>
<p>For one, the attacks seem to mimic the economic and political realities into which millennials were born. Along with the rise of a neoliberal economic order that privileges the market over citizens, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/staggering-ways-america-rigged-traumatize-and-impoverish-kids-coming-out-college">we’ve witnessed the evolution of a national attitude that increasingly views social crises as personal problems</a>. </p>
<p>In other words, rather than understanding the challenges facing this generation of young people – student debt, a <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/even-baby-boomers-think-its-harder-to-get-started-than-it-used-to-be/395609/">hostile economy</a>, a <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/">highly polarized society</a>, strained race relations, increased academic pressures – as a social crisis that affects us all, the trend has been to “privatize” their problems and assume that students just need to “toughen up.” </p>
<p>These sorts of claims are legion among university leaders, faculty and the media. </p>
<p>At a recent meeting I attended on academic leadership at the University of Wisconsin, I was astonished at how often university leaders disparaged millennial students, referring to them repeatedly as whiners. In one particularly disturbing exchange I had with a faculty member from Purdue, she called her students entitled slackers. Her evidence? They wanted to retake tests when they hadn’t done well. At the same meeting, a colleague from Penn State said he thought students benefited from debt, since it taught them the value of education. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Jeffrey Selingo, a faculty member at Arizona State University, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/10/21/helicopter-parents-are-not-the-only-problem-colleges-coddle-students-too/">complained in The Washington Post</a> that students are not only raised by helicopter parents; they’re also coddled by helicopter universities that cater to their every whim, while virtually guaranteeing that they graduate. And Psychology Today <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201509/declining-student-resilience-serious-problem-colleges">published</a> a widely circulated piece detailing how students lack resilience and are overburdening campus counseling services for unfounded anxieties. </p>
<h2>The millennial myth mill</h2>
<p>All one has to do is look at the numbers to see how the complaints of academics and the media are overblown. </p>
<p>At Arizona State University, the four-year graduation rate <a href="http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/asu-1081">is actually 43%</a> – a far cry from the diploma turnstile described by Selingo. </p>
<p>And asking to retake a test isn’t an example of entitlement: the student is asking for a second chance, not a gift. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/jobs/31gpa.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">Given the real ways that GPAs affect a student’s future</a>, such worries aren’t unreasonable. </p>
<p>With regard to student resilience, discounting the real anxieties of college students ignores the real pressure they face. Suicide among high school students is also on the rise; <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-silicon-valley-suicides/413140/">recent data show</a> that some of America’s most privileged students are thinking about suicide at alarming rates. </p>
<p>More disturbing is the claim that debt helps students. It may seem unfair to home in on an anecdote, but the idea that student debt builds character is all too common. We can even find <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2015/08/17/why-im-glad-i-had-student-loans/">students chiming in about the character benefits to their loans.</a></p>
<p>While student loans can <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-09-06/student-loans-debt-for-life">sometimes be called “good debt,”</a> there’s mounting evidence against it. Debt creates tremendous pressure on students – most of it far from good. Beyond greatly hindering graduates in their selection of future careers, there’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/c-cryn-johannsen/student-loan-debt-suicides_b_1638972.html">even ample evidence</a> that, in extreme cases, student debt can lead to suicide. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/15/the-high-economic-and-social-costs-of-student-loan-debt.html">CNBC reports</a> that “The high levels of student debt are also serving to perpetuate and even worsen economic inequality, undercutting the opportunity and social mobility that higher education has long promised.” In addition, <a href="http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/2013/05/01/how-student-debt-affects-women-minorities">studies have shown</a> that debt disproportionately hurts women and minorities. </p>
<h2>Facts versus fiction</h2>
<p>Clearly our nation’s young are in crisis – and it’s not all in their heads. There’s overwhelming evidence that college students live in an era of insecurity.</p>
<p>Here’s a sampling:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>About <a href="http://www.cic.edu/meetings-and-events/Leadership-Development/Documents/ELA-resources/First%20Generation%20College%20Students.pdf">one-third</a> of all college students are first generation.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/millennials_report.pdf">Forty-three percent</a> of millennials are of color and deal on a daily basis with the challenges of white privilege.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/4.8-million-college-students-are-raising-children">Twenty-six percent</a> of undergraduates are raising dependent children.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rsavcaf9513.pdf">One in five female students</a> will be sexually assaulted in college.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_debt">Seventy percent</a> of college students have student debt. Nationwide, that adds up to US$1.2 trillion – a per student average of $29,000.</p></li>
<li><p>Student debt is <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/11/black-lives-matter-on-campus-too.html">higher for black students than white students</a>. In 2013, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/the-disproportionate-burden-of-student-loan-debt-on-minorities/392456/">42%</a> of black families carried student loan debt, compared to 28% of white families.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2015/06/05/millennial-college-graduates-young-educated-jobless-335821.html">Forty percent</a> of the nation’s unemployed are millennials.</p></li>
<li><p>Hate crimes on campuses are on the rise, and <a href="https://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2009/locationtype.html">over 11%</a> of all hate crimes in 2009 took place on college campuses.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/half-of-blacks-arrested-23_n_4549620.html">By the age of 23</a>, nearly half of black males and 40% of white males have been arrested. </p></li>
<li><p>Despite recruiting efforts to draw a diverse student body, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=173718711">students of color often find a lack of inclusion and support once they arrive.</a> From offensive Halloween garb to KKK graffiti, these students often encounter unwelcoming, or even hostile, environments. This is especially true at schools located outside of urban areas.</p></li>
<li><p>Black and Hispanic students <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/race-gap-narrows-in-college-enrollment-but-not-in-graduation/">have lower graduation rates</a> than whites. In 2005, 62% of whites got a degree within six years, versus 40% of blacks and 51% of Hispanics.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=61">Seventy-nine percent</a> of faculty are white, a statistic that, <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ839497.pdf">according to research</a>, can negatively influence the academic success of nonwhite students.</p></li>
<li><p>College-educated black students are also <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/25/business/for-recent-black-college-graduates-a-tougher-road-to-employment.html?_r=2">disproportionately unemployed</a>. In 2013, 12.4% of black graduates were unemployed, compared to 4.9% of whites.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Clearly, students protesting race relations and economic insecurity have valid concerns. And if it makes sense to talk about taking down the Confederate flag, isn’t it also reasonable to debate the commemoration of <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/wilson-legacy-racism/417549/">racists like Woodrow Wilson</a> on our nation’s college campuses? </p>
<p>Yet when protests – like the recent one at Yale University – are covered, the students are derided as intolerant and hysterical. Comedian Bill Maher <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maher-goes-off-on-pc-college-protesters-who-raised-these-little-monsters/">referred to them</a> as “little monsters.” </p>
<p>Rather than analyze the complex realities that caused the protests in the first place, much of the attention has been on the character – or lack thereof – of the protesters themselves.</p>
<p>As Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/11/black-lives-matter-on-campus-too.html">reported</a> from the front lines of the Black Lives Matter campus protests, “All of these streams feed the river of anxiety, frustration and disappointment flowing through black students across the country. These students are not coddled or hypersensitive. Rather, they are grappling with the uncertainty and insecurity that accompanies much of black life in the United States today.”</p>
<p>Why is there an inability to imagine that students have legitimate grievances? And why does the critique focus on the flaws of the protesters rather than the flawed institutions that sparked the protests in the first place? </p>
<p>Unfortunately, until we change the narrative of coddled-millennial-cum-entitled-activist, it’s unlikely any serious thought will be given to the matter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51234/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia A. McClennen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why do critiques focus on the flaws of the protesters, rather than the flawed institutions that sparked the protests in the first place?Sophia A. McClennen, Director, Center for Global Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510782015-11-23T10:31:55Z2015-11-23T10:31:55ZHere’s how history is shaping the #studentblackout movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102692/original/image-20151121-412-1j3ctc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students across campuses are protesting against racial injustice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/max-goldberg/23050032346/in/photolist-B7RryN-Awbuko-B8X7Vo-AwbEzk-AwbtPU-AwbEkc-qEiTCL-pZS6oo-qEpMhM-qErwhv-qEhveN-pZS13d-qEpHAP-qErtgR-qWHh34-qWS8VD-qErsdP-qEpDRz-pZRVcG-qErowa-qWMunY-dVdmE3-dV7LWR-dV7LP4-dV7LDT-dVdm73-dVdkWU-dVdkPb-dV7KZk-dVdkwj-dV7KEn-dV7Kuc-dV7KhF-dVdjGj-dV7JVa-49dLju-5AmTdn-qWHogB-qErxY6-qUz6zd-qEiPwu-qWSbyp-qErr2R-qErqKi-qEpEhK-qEiEvy-qWS34i-qEhjHY-qEiCm3-qErjkz">Max Goldberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="http://dailycampus.com/stories/2015/11/20/yale-missouri-protests-spark-nationwide-backlash-on-college-campuses">Students are protesting</a> over racism across campuses in the United States. We asked Marshall Ganz, who dropped out of Harvard as an undergraduate to be an organizer in 1964 and now teaches organizing and leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, to discuss the significance of these protests and the history of student activism.</em></p>
<p><strong>What is the history of student activism in the United States and how has it been a catalyst for change?</strong></p>
<p>Student activism in the US goes back to the 19th century, but <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/why-david-sometimes-wins-9780195162011?cc=us&lang=en&">I became involved</a> in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, a time when student activism – initiated largely by Black students – played an especially prominent role. </p>
<p>Dr [Martin Luther] King, when he led the bus boycott, was only 25 years old. The leaders of the “sit-ins” in Tennessee and North Carolina were 19- to 21-year-old students at Historically Black Colleges (HBCs). For those of us who were not Black but shared the values of the civil rights movement, it was both challenging and inspiring to see the courage of peers who were “walking the walk.”</p>
<p>Although <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo5939918.html">many of the activists</a> came from colleges, for the most part colleges were not the targets of the movement. The civil rights movement was more focused on issues such as voting, public accommodations, police brutality and schooling.</p>
<p>But the civil rights movement inspired other currents of change that did target colleges. For example, the <a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/sixtiesprotest/berkeley.htm">free speech movement</a> that started in the fall of 1964 was sparked by University of California’s attempts to curb student fund-raising for <a href="http://www.core-online.org/History/history.htm">civil rights</a> <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/sncc">groups</a>. </p>
<p>It led to a reaction that spread rapidly across campuses. In the famous words of <a href="http://www.savio.org/who_was_mario.html">Mario Savio</a>, one of the key leaders of this movement, students protested against attempts by universities to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ELARIo1Xb1sC&pg=PA205&lpg=PA205&dq=folded,+spindled,+and+mutilated+mario+savio&source=bl&ots=rCFtl-HLvx&sig=-_On-iikm3HS1yR1J8paRH1md3I&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic0O6TiqPJAhVEXD4KHZxYCOYQ6AEINjAD#v=onepage&q=folded%2C%20spindled%2C%20and%20mutilated%20mario%20saviofol&f=false">“fold, spindle, or mutilate”</a> them in ways that denied their dignity and capacity for self-determination. </p>
<p>Then came <a href="http://www.afhso.af.mil/topics/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=15267">Operation Rolling Thunder</a> – when the large scale “call-up” of young people to fight the war in Vietnam started. The “draft” meant that every young man had to make a choice – some among the more privileged stayed in school; some went to Canada; some others went to jail. </p>
<p>This was also the time when universities became the focus of the antiwar movement, as that was where the students were. Many viewed universities as being complicit – through war-related research, or the presence of <a href="http://100.lmu.edu/Assets/Centennial/Website/Oral+History/Articles/mcnerney2.pdf">ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps)</a> on campus. So they became a focal point for protest. </p>
<p><strong>From your perspective, how does the current #studentblackout movement look?</strong></p>
<p>There is a <a href="http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/productgroup/390/The-Prophetic-Imagination">deep affinity</a> between generational change and social change. Protestant theologian <a href="http://store.augsburgfortress.org/store/productgroup/390/The-Prophetic-Imagination">Walter Bruggemann says</a> that “prophetic” or “transformational vision” may occur when a person’s experience of the world’s hurt (a critical view) interacts with a person’s experience of the world’s promise (a hopeful view). Similarly, young people come of age with a critical eye on the world they find, but also, almost of necessity – with hopeful hearts. </p>
<p>The civil rights movement opened a lot of doors. But it left so much undone. It expanded the opportunities for so-called “qualified” people of color to enter the power structure, but failed to reconfigure the power structure itself. </p>
<p>In particular, the economics of institutionalized racism were not really addressed, nor was urban poverty, segregated housing or poor schooling, with all its consequences. Dr King, when he was killed, was organizing the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91626373">“Poor People’s Campaign.”</a> At the time, racial justice, economic justice and political justice were linked. </p>
<p>Subsequently, they got decoupled. Economics in particular got left behind.</p>
<p>Something similar happened in the American women’s movement that began to open pathways into the power structure but <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/sociology/sociology-general-interest/states-markets-families-gender-liberalism-and-social-policy-australia-canada-great-britain-and-united-states">did little</a> to change the conditions faced by working women – who needed access to childcare and family leave policies. Contrast that to other countries where there was less focus on access for the elite. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102711/original/image-20151122-412-k0alhr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students are protesting against racial injustice across campuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/max-goldberg/22657705877/in/photolist-AwbEzk-A">Max Goldberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is a great thing that this generation has been challenged and motivated to take this fight forward.</p>
<p>In the past, the thrust of student movement as such was not as focused on race in particular. This movement is much more focused. It is a bit ironic that while there has been progress on race and gender equality since the 1960s, we have gone backwards on economic equality. </p>
<p><strong>Should the troubled past of racial history be removed from campuses?</strong></p>
<p>When we did the <a href="http://www.educationanddemocracy.org/ED_FSC.html">freedom schools</a> in 1964, we had a book called <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/docs/negro_history_primer.pdf">Freedom Primer</a> – it was a telling of Black history – as nobody knew Black history. What was being taught in the schools was reconstruction and redemption. The narrative was that reconstruction was a disaster – when savages took over. And redemption brought order with the restoration of white rule. Black history had been obliterated.</p>
<p>That racial history is embedded everywhere. The process of reclaiming African-American history was an important part of the claims about dignity. And continues to be. It is all a part of challenging the narratives that try to make you less than a human being – an object.</p>
<p>I like the fact that in Harvard’s <a href="https://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ememhall/">Memorial Hall</a> the only names listed are the names of those Harvard students who fought for the Union. White students from the South protest from time to time but, so far, with little success. </p>
<p>You have to take on what you have access to – and that is what the students are doing. The question is whether that is sufficient. </p>
<p><strong>What about students at Princeton asking to remove the name of Woodrow Wilson?</strong></p>
<p>Woodrow Wilson reinforced racism in the US at a time when leadership was needed in the opposite direction. The Japanese at the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YwHbgnSi_sQC&pg=PR4&lpg=PR4&dq=Japan-Race-Equality-Institute-Routledge&source=bl&ots=gv_Ef67pMe&sig=Br3hU6t_8uv9jdC7L1BfQbPrvh8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic3bWc4Z_JAhWCRyYKHQeGCKkQ6AEIODAE#v=onepage&q=Japan-Race-Equality-Institute-Routledge&f=false">League of Nations were arguing for racial equality</a>, which he opposed. </p>
<p>Why should schools carry the name of such an outspoken and influential racist? </p>
<p>It still does not shift the economic reality, the criminal justice reality or the political disenfranchisement reality. It’s only a piece of it. </p>
<p><strong>Is dialogue not better than confrontation?</strong></p>
<p>Dialogue becomes possible only under conditions of equal power. It is hard for unequals to have a dialogue. In a posture of inequality, the one with the power sets the terms. The one without power is expected to accept the terms. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300056693">first step</a> toward creating a dialogue may be to shout and speak the truth. Then comes the strategic question: can we build the power we need to create the conditions in which real dialogue can occur? And that’s when movements have to be resourceful enough to find new sources of power. Substituting dialogue for equality is a sham and winds up being a play-act. Power, as it is, is never ceded willingly.</p>
<p>Missouri offers an <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2587592-tim-wolfe-resigns-as-missouri-president-amid-protests-boycott-by-football-team?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial">interesting example</a>. It started with the football team, which has a lot of economic power – you get to a dialogue stage only when you get to a balance of power. </p>
<p><strong>Is a more corporate structure of universities changing who has the power?</strong></p>
<p>Yes, some things are changing. There is pressure to monetize – especially at some for-profit colleges. But the thing is that some structures have not changed – for the most part, especially in the elite colleges, the people who had power are the ones who still have the power – donors, traditional elites. Look who’s on the board of <a href="http://www.harvard.edu/about-harvard/harvards-leadership/president-and-fellows-harvard-corporation">Harvard corporation.</a> </p>
<p>If anything, there is more leverage today – people are willing to challenge and speak up.</p>
<p>Universities will tend to accommodate to the extent they can without ceding real power. They will agree – “okay, we will change the name of X.” That’s important and significant, but it needs to be joined with greater economic opportunity, not only for African Americans able to get into college in the first place, but black youth more broadly. </p>
<p><strong>What about the role of leadership in present times?</strong></p>
<p>On one hand there is the leadership of the students’ movement, which is vibrant, dynamic, emergent and, like most social movements, <a href="http://www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/joreen/tyranny.htm">tends to view structure</a> with skepticism. </p>
<p>On the other hand is the university leadership, which is not very well-prepared. Few faculty have much training in leadership, especially the kind of moral leadership grounded in confidence, clarity about one’s own values and empathetic understanding of role of challenge in creating constructive change. That can be tough when you don’t know how to find the courage to respond constructively in the first place.</p>
<p>This movement is quite extraordinary – a new generation accepting responsibility for confronting the deep roots of racial inequality in this country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marshall Ganz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A former activist turned professor says previous student movements may have opened the door for people of color to have greater opportunity but fell short of changing the power structure.Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/495492015-11-17T04:23:32Z2015-11-17T04:23:32ZWhy student leaders should be elected on merit, not party affiliation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101454/original/image-20151110-21232-1olnpce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A young man wearing an African National Congress shirt joins in student protests in South Africa. Party politics and student politics shouldn't mix.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Sydney Seshibedi</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>University students in South Africa demonstrated high levels of organisation and solidarity during a series of fee protests in October 2015. Once President Jacob Zuma had declared a 0% fee increase for 2016, that solidarity wavered. </p>
<p>Some students and university workers staged a new set of protests against the practice of outsourcing. But on many campuses students began pleading with their <a href="http://www.dailysun.co.za/news/national/2015-10-28-we-want-exams">student representative councils</a> (SRCs) to call off the action and allow the scheduled final exams to go ahead. They were ignored.</p>
<p>It has become clear that SRCs no longer represent the majority of students. Many are putting political <a href="http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/cc040e004a5d27d2ac21ff6d39fe9e0c/PYA-accused-of-sabotaging-">party loyalties</a> ahead of students’ interests. Their actions were <a href="http://www.thedailyvox.co.za/did-the-pya-betray-wits-students/">being determined</a>, directly or indirectly, by their mother bodies and parties. </p>
<p>The origin of this breakdown lies in how student representatives are elected. It is time for a change in this electoral system.</p>
<h2>Problems with the process</h2>
<p>South African SRC elections differ from campus to campus. These inconsistencies stem from the <a href="http://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/act101.PDF">Higher Education Act</a>, which stipulates that the composition and manner of election must be determined by an institution’s own statutes.</p>
<p>Generally, there are between ten and 15 seats on a student council. As with the country’s legislature, an organisation which secures a majority of those seats will be able to pass resolutions with ease. In many instances, student movements or organisations will put forward several candidates in a bid to gain control of the SRC.</p>
<p>The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth is a good example of this system. Students elect their leaders on an individual basis, but these candidates are largely grouped behind a student organisation that is usually tied to a political party. In the 2015 elections the Democratic Alliance Student Organisation (DASO) won the elections by securing a majority of the central portfolio seats. </p>
<p>These individuals are governed by the student movement they represent. The movement, in turn, can potentially be governed by the political party they fall under. DASO, for instance, is the student arm of the country’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance.</p>
<p>A slight variation of this model can be seen at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits. It also uses a council seat system, but the student body can’t control who takes specific portfolios. The people elected onto the SRC allocate people to different positions.</p>
<p>A major problem arises when it comes to electing the council executive. This system favours larger, more organised student movements. The parties with the most seats have more power over who occupies these important positions, and their wishes often trump those of ordinary students.</p>
<h2>Conflicts of interest</h2>
<p>South Africa’s Constitution <a href="http://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng-02.pdf">guarantees</a> the freedom of association, so people can join any political party they choose. Why should SRC members be any different? Quite simply because of the potential for a conflict of interest. </p>
<p>Wits’ SRC president Nompendulo Mkatshwa – who took office as the fee protests were hotting up – is an <a href="http://www.financialmail.co.za/fmfox/2015/11/04/fees-must-fall-conflict-of-interest-brewing">active member</a> of the governing African National Congress (ANC). Some students have alleged that she warned the ANC ahead of a planned march by #FeesMustFall protesters for the party’s headquarters, Luthuli House. It has also been suggested that she opposed the march.</p>
<p>There was clearly a conflict here between what an SRC leader’s constituency – students – wanted, and what her political party would have preferred. In the end, students prevailed. But what happens next time their desires clash with those of the governing party?</p>
<h2>The Indian example</h2>
<p>India’s SRC elections tend to be hotly contested, even violent affairs. In some states they are even banned, and SRC candidates are selected by university staff.</p>
<p>In 2005 the Supreme Court of India established the J Lyngdoh Commission to <a href="http://archives.peoplesdemocracy.in/2006/1203/12032006_ragesh.htm">investigate</a> student governance issues and elections in particular.</p>
<p>The commission concluded, <a href="http://www.lkouniv.ac.in/pdf/lcp_10nov2014.pdf">among other things</a>, that there was a need for candidates to be detached from political parties and to give an undertaking to that effect before being allowed to run for office. It found that SRCs had become “feeder devices” for political candidates, so students were more interested in their own future careers than representing their peers.</p>
<p>The committee noted that, despite an investigation into SRC processes as far back as 1983, “political interference in the student election process is still clearly rampant”. In Kolkata, it reported:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Members of political parties regularly forced independent candidates, or candidates ‘not conforming to the prevalent political ideology’ [not to stand] in student elections.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The primary need, therefore, is to evolve some mechanism that does away with, or at least minimises the influence of political parties in student elections. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The wheels grind slowly, though. The Supreme Court endorsed this report but only now, a decade on, are there are finally plans <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/ugc-seeks-report-on-student-union-elections/">to implement it</a>.</p>
<h2>Current system should be replaced</h2>
<p>The Indian committee’s findings and recommendations could easily be applied to South African universities. Elections on its campuses should take place on the strength of the individual, without political affiliation. Individuals would be allowed to form a caucus, but independent of political parties.</p>
<p>The beauty of such a system is that the candidates would be chosen on merit and on the content of their ideologies and manifestos. This system is not without its faults, but, importantly, it leaves the governing of students to students. There would be no chance of political parties dictating to their campus branches what must happen in student politics.</p>
<p>Such a system would also encourage student leaders to work together as a collective rather than pursuing a political agenda or set of instructions issued from the outside. It would challenge students to think for themselves in resolving issues and to develop their leadership skills. </p>
<p>Party loyalty on campuses is a dangerous trait that should be avoided.
To continue with party based student politics is to assume, incorrectly, that students are merely incubators for political parties. Not only does it create potential conflicts on campuses but it also makes student leaders pawns in politicians’ games.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Kaseke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time to change how student representatives are elected at South Africa’s universities. The existing process gives far too much space and power to political parties.Paul Kaseke, Sessional Lecturer & Research and Teaching Associate, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/270552014-05-22T04:23:31Z2014-05-22T04:23:31ZStudent protests won’t be the last, and they certainly weren’t the first<p>Yesterday saw a national day of action by university students protesting against federal budget proposals to increase student fees and interest on student debt. </p>
<p>The protests reportedly led to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/tony-abbott-and-christopher-pyne-cancel-university-visit-amid-safety-fears">Prime Minister Tony Abbott and education minister Christopher Pyne cancelling a visit to Victoria’s Deakin University</a>, in a bid to to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/21/australia-wide-student-protests-higher-education-cuts-live-blog">take the wind out</a> of the protests.</p>
<p>The action, organised by the National Union of Students, follows two recent protests at Melbourne and Sydney universities in which former Liberal MP <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/19/sophie-mirabella-penned-in-by-protesters-at-university-of-melbourne">Sophie Mirabella</a> and foreign minister <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julie-bishop-heckled-by-university-of-sydney-students-over-funding-cuts-20140516-38fc3.html">Julie Bishop</a> were surrounded by protesting students, as well as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sorry-tony-the-student-demo-on-qanda-was-democracy-in-action-26321">infamous incident on the ABC’s Q&A program</a>, when student protesters interrupted the show when Pyne was speaking. The cry from many of the Liberal government and sections of the media has been that student protest is “violent” and “undemocratic”. However the government in Canberra has been saying the same thing about protesting students for the last 45 years. </p>
<h2>History of the student protest</h2>
<p>The late 1960s saw a rise in radicalism amongst Australian youth, especially as the student population increased. Many of the students were motivated by international events, such as the events of 1968, the Vietnam War and South African apartheid. Others were inspired by issues closer to home, such as the women’s liberation and Aboriginal rights movements. </p>
<p>By 1969, the recently elected (but quite unpopular) John Gorton government were fearful these protests were gaining momentum and could escalate towards ‘Paris-style’ violence (referring to the barricades erected by students in the French capital in May 1968). Under Nigel Bowen, then Thomas Hughes, the Attorney-General’s Department started devising legislation to curb protest in Canberra and on Commonwealth premises – a focal point for protest against the Vietnam War. Archival documents show the Attorney-General believed that new federal laws would then become the framework for similar public order laws across the states. This led to the Gorton government developing the Public Order (Protection of Persons and Property) Act, eventually passed in May 1971.</p>
<p>Public and archival records show that the government was very concerned about the popular tactic of the “sit-in”. Favoured by protesters because it was seen as non-violent, yet effective in disruption, the government debated whether the “sit-in” was a violent act or whether “sitting-in” protesters could be charged with trespassing. <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22hansard80%2Fhansards80%2F1971-04-28%2F0173%22">Liberal Senator George Hannan complained</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Commonwealth premises have been to some extent an area of no-man’s land… [R]ecently we had in Melbourne people who I would in fact describe as hoodlums but who describe themselves as protesters, who attempted to set fire to wastepaper baskets in the General Post Office.</p>
<p>We have seen in this country in recent times a growth in what has been euphemistically described as ‘sit-ins’. Only the states of New South Wales and Victoria have appropriate legislation to deal with this particular activity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Any legislation passed by the federal government only concerned the ACT and Commonwealth property. But Hughes felt strict new laws were necessary to “let demonstrators know where they stand” and “make clear the Government’s firm intention to protect citizens from violence”.</p>
<p>In Parliament, Liberal and Country (now National) Party MPs repeatedly referred to demonstrations across Australia to portray a sense of chaos created by student radicalism. In April 1971, when the new laws were being debated, these MPs mentioned ten different protests in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide that become “violent”. <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22hansard80%2Fhansardr80%2F1971-04-20%2F0116%22">Liberal backbencher John David Jess warned</a> of the “dangerous” tactics employed by some, such as “people coming into buildings, taking over offices, opening files, distributing documents and terrifying civil servants”. </p>
<p>Some in the Labor opposition defended these protests as legitimate displays of the public’s moral outrage over the Vietnam War, apartheid or racism in Australian society. <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22hansard80%2Fhansardr80%2F1971-04-07%2F0133%22">Future Prime Minister Gough Whitlam said</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>One cannot expect men and women of 18, 19 and 20 years of age to respect laws which they abominate</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Shadow Minister for Trade Jim Cairns also claimed that most of the violence witnessed at protests came from the police, and not from the protesters.</p>
<p>Eventually the government, now under William McMahon, passed its laws against ‘violent’ protest. Throughout 1971, there were three uses of the legislation to combat large demonstrations in Canberra – <a href="http://hatfulofhistory.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/days-of-rage-the-public-order-act-1971-in-practice/">twice in the week following the law’s passing</a> and <a href="http://soda.naa.gov.au/record/4269694/1">once in July against those protesting the South African Springbok tour</a>. However many of those arrested had their charges dismissed by the courts and the law fell into disuse under Whitlam and Fraser.</p>
<p>Although Fraser was the subject of much protest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he did not go down the same path as Gorton and McMahon. Notoriously, <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MDQ-9Oe3GGUC&dat=19760824&printsec=frontpage&hl=en">Fraser was barricaded by protesting students at Monash University in August 1976</a>. Yet he was restrained in his response to student protest. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/once-were-campus-warriors-20120903-25a4f.html">As journalist Gary Newman wrote a few years ago</a>, this was the period when most of today’s politicians cut their political teeth. From this, it is arguable that these experiences of student protest have informed how those presently in government view student politics and protest more widely. </p>
<p>The spectre of student radical, now a ghost on many Australian campuses, still seems to haunt the current Liberal government. It also seems that the government and other media commentators are still using the language of the past to describe the actions of today’s students. But will Abbott and his ministers react like Gorton/McMahon or like Fraser?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Evan Smith has received funding from the Australian Prime Ministers Centre/Museum of Australian Democracy and the Australian Academy of the Humanities. This piece is partially based on research conducted as an APMC Fellow in 2010.</span></em></p>Yesterday saw a national day of action by university students protesting against federal budget proposals to increase student fees and interest on student debt. The protests reportedly led to Prime Minister…Evan Smith, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in History, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.