tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/campus-protest-38346/articlesCampus protest – The Conversation2021-08-12T12:28:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1633272021-08-12T12:28:02Z2021-08-12T12:28:02Z5 issues that could affect the future of campus police<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415718/original/file-20210811-21-rv9dxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C7178%2C4677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Campus police have been accused of biased practices. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-national-guard-along-with-university-police-news-photo/1213723784?adppopup=true">John Paraskevas/Newsday RM vis Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the May 2020 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html">murder of George Floyd</a> at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, much of the attention on police reform has been <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/killings-by-police-declined-after-black-lives-matter-protests1/">directed at municipal police departments</a>. But there has also been a noticeable uptick in protests against the practices of campus police. </p>
<p>Protests have occurred at, among other schools, <a href="https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/students-call-on-yale-to-defund-campus-police-department/">Yale University</a>, <a href="https://news.wttw.com/2020/09/06/university-chicago-students-end-7-day-occupation-outside-provost-home">the University of Chicago</a>, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-hopkins-police-20210305-xgs7434erbbpzgfhj3p7yxeoz4-story.html">Johns Hopkins University</a>, the <a href="https://www.startribune.com/tension-escalates-between-university-of-minnesota-student-leaders-campus-police/600051740/">University of Minnesota</a> and various campuses of the <a href="https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/05/04/california-university-students-employees-demand-removal-of-campus-police/">University of California system</a>. </p>
<p>The protests have been fueled by evidence of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/15/one-police-call-lasting-damage-smith">racial profiling</a>, <a href="https://whyy.org/articles/university-cops-face-renewed-scrutiny-amid-protests-against-police-brutality/">excessive force</a>, <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/scholars-under-surveillance-how-campus-police-use-high-tech-spy-students">improper surveillance</a> and allowing <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/how-police-can-stop-being-weaponized-bias-motivated">racial stereotypes</a> in 911 calls to influence officer responses. </p>
<p>Protesters have demanded that schools undertake major <a href="https://www.pdx.edu/president/reimagining-campus-public-safety">reforms</a> of their campus police departments. Others have called on schools to <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/defund-campus-police.html">defund</a> their police. Still others have demanded <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-we-should-abolish-campus-police">abolishing</a> campus police altogether. </p>
<p>To understand this state of affairs, it helps to first understand the creation and evolution of campus policing.</p>
<h2>Police on college campuses</h2>
<p>Sworn and armed police officers on college campuses have existed since Yale <a href="https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/a-seminal-moment-for-americas-campus-police/">hired two officers</a> from the New Haven Police Department in 1894. Their duties included patrolling campus and protecting life and property. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that campus police as they exist today first appeared.</p>
<p>These early departments were often <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/8966NCJRS.pdf">commanded by</a> former deputy chiefs or precinct commanders of police departments in major cities. That pattern continues <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/07/27/johns-hopkins-campus-police-private/">today</a>. Campus police departments also follow the <a href="https://cebcp.org/evidence-based-policing/what-works-in-policing/research-evidence-review/standard-model-policing-tactics/">“standard model”</a> of policing typically used by city police in which campus officers wear uniforms, take an oath to protect and serve, and carry handguns.</p>
<p>Having studied campus police since 1992, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cmMlCVkAAAAJ&hl=en">my research and experience</a> lead me to believe there are currently five issues campus police chiefs and university presidents could address to prevent further student unrest.</p>
<h2>1. Legitimacy</h2>
<p>Many of the student protests have raised questions about the <a href="https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article237068524.html">legitimacy</a> of campus police. That is, <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TL261/better-policing-toolkit/all-strategies/legitimacy-policing/in-depth.html">they are questioning</a> the very existence of campus police.</p>
<p>Initially, legitimacy for campus police rested with the fact that they were supposed to be <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/10/new-style-of-police-training-aims-to-produce-guardians-not-warriors/">guardians</a> of the campus community. However, almost from the beginning, the ideal of campus police officers as guardians failed to gain traction. Students, campus visitors and even other police officers expressed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0032258X20906859">skepticism</a> about whether campus police had the same authority as real police.</p>
<p>To remedy this, during the 1980s and 1990s, new campus officers began to train at the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED272039">same academies</a> as regular officers. They were also armed with the same weapons and tools, including handguns, <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/181655.pdf">pepper spray</a>, batons, handcuffs and walkie-talkies.</p>
<p>This strategy, however, ran into problems when the legitimacy of regular police <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-legitimacy-how-it-can-be-regained-once-lost-144154">came under fire</a>. This was especially true after the murder of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd.html">Floyd</a> by Minneapolis police officer <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/us/derek-chauvin-sentencing-george-floyd/index.html">Derek Chauvin</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Militarization</h2>
<p>Some colleges have also tapped into an effort to take surplus military equipment from the U.S. government – giving rise to what some <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/01/885942130/militarization-of-police-means-u-s-protesters-face-weapons-designed-for-war">critics have described</a> as <a href="https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/radley-balko/rise-of-the-warrior-cop/9781610392129/">the rise</a> of a “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3096870">warrior</a>” persona among campus police. </p>
<p>Specifically, campus police <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/184523/">departments</a> have been taking advantage of the U.S. Defense Department’s <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-hand-me-downs-militarize-police-1033-program/">1033 Program</a>. Created as part of 1997’s <a href="https://justfacts.votesmart.org/bill/2780/8182/national-defense-authorization-act-for-fiscal-year-1997">National Defense Authorization Act</a>, the 1033 Program allows the Defense Department to legally dispose of surplus equipment by giving it to local authorities, including police agencies. </p>
<p>Since the program’s inception, over <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2020/06/12/police-departments-1033-military-equipment-weapons/">$7 billion worth of equipment</a> has been transferred to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies, including campus police departments at <a href="https://www.thelantern.com/2013/09/ohio-state-university-police-bring-in-military-vehicle/">The Ohio State University</a> and the <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/the-university-of-central-florida-has-a-grenade-launcher-and-florida/2198069/">University of Central Florida</a>. </p>
<p>Scholarly evidence shows <a href="https://news.emory.edu/stories/2020/12/er_military_equipment_police_crime/campus.html">little effect</a> of such equipment on crime levels either on or off campus. Instead, the evidence shows <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/19412116">negative impacts</a> of this equipment on citizen perceptions of, and trust in, police. This includes campus officers.</p>
<h2>3. Transparency</h2>
<p>Unlike their municipal counterparts, campus police – particularly those at private schools – may not have to release formal records of officer encounters with citizens. For example, <a href="https://www.policedatainitiative.org/datasets/incidents/">police incident reports</a> that include such information as the circumstances of the encounter are official records of the agency and stored in its records management system. Since these records may be <a href="https://splc.org/2008/03/sunshine-week-when-requesting-campus-crime-records-responses-vary-widely/">difficult to obtain</a> from campus police departments, tracking the outcomes of officer encounters with students and others may be difficult.</p>
<p>A 2016 <a href="https://splc.org/2016/03/private-campus-police-forces/">review</a> by the Student Press Law Center found that Connecticut, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Virginia were the only states that had enacted legislation requiring public disclosure of police incident reports by private police departments sanctioned by the state. Additionally, agency processes and procedures for addressing complaints filed against officers are often <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2020/07/15/487647/4-actions-colleges-can-take-address-police-brutality/">difficult to obtain</a>. This makes it harder for citizens to file complaints against campus officers.</p>
<h2>4. ‘Mission creep’</h2>
<p>“Mission creep” refers to the gradual geographical expansion of an intervention, project or mission beyond its original scope. Often used by the <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/u-s-mission-creep-in-afghanistan-led-to-unwinnable-never-ending-war-confidential-documents-show/">military</a>, the term describes reasons for countries becoming involved in conflicts longer than originally planned. In the case of campus police, mission creep refers to the fact that officers’ <a href="https://www.police1.com/police-jobs-and-careers/articles/college-police-forces-increasingly-expand-jurisdiction-Wmunbm1YTJE5x9M5/">jurisdictional boundaries</a> are increasingly extending well beyond campus into surrounding areas. </p>
<p>Through <a href="https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+sum+HB965S">mutual aid agreements</a>, local municipalities give campus police legal authority to patrol off-campus locations and render assistance to local police as needed. As a result, campus police now patrol areas well outside the physical boundaries of their campus, in communities where residents may not know who the officers are or why they are in the neighborhood. This is a situation ripe for <a href="https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2020/6/28/university-must-disband-private-police-force/">conflict</a>.</p>
<h2>5. Training</h2>
<p>New campus officers must first complete <a href="https://dspace.sunyconnect.suny.edu/handle/1951/70612">basic law enforcement training</a> before being allowed to undertake their duties. </p>
<p>This training involves on average of 800 or more contact hours at one of nearly 700 police academies in the U.S. The focus of this training is across several “core” areas: operations, weapons and defensive tactics, self improvement and <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/RIC/Publications/cops-p157-pub.pdf">community-oriented policing</a>, a practice where community members partner with police to come up with solutions to fight crime.</p>
<p>However, it is not unusual for training in operations and weapons or defensive tactics to encompass more than 60% of total training hours, compared to training in community-oriented policing that constitutes only about 10% of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F10986111211013311">total hours</a>. Thus, what’s being stressed in the training campus officers receive are <a href="https://thebscblog.wordpress.com/page/4/">traditional law enforcement</a> tools and tactics, rather than conflict deescalation, professional ethics, community partnerships, communication and problem solving.</p>
<h2>Areas for reform</h2>
<p>That many of the same criticisms being leveled at the police more broadly are also being leveled against campus police creates opportunities for both. For campus police, there are <a href="https://universitybusiness.com/reform-campus-police-uc-davis-binghamton-protests-george-floyd/">solutions</a>. For example, campus police departments can make themselves more transparent and their officers more accountable. They can remove military-grade weapons and equipment from their arsenals to help change their “warrior” image. </p>
<p>Departments can also emphasize that their officers be guided by the principles of <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/prodceduraljustice">procedural justice</a> during interactions with citizens to ensure fairness, grant citizens a voice and ensure that officers don’t make biased decisions.</p>
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<p>Ending mutual aid agreements can reverse campus departments’ ever-expanding jurisdictional boundaries and help reduce officer conflict with citizens in communities beyond campus. </p>
<p>In my opinion, reforms like these will transform not only how campus police “serve and protect” but dramatically enhance citizen perceptions of their legitimacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John J Sloan, III has received funding from the National Science Foundation, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Community Oriented Policing, and the National Institute of Justice. </span></em></p>As college students seek reform of campus police, a scholar outlines five issues that warrant the most attention.John J. Sloan III, Professor Emeritus of Criminal Justice and Sociology, University of Alabama at BirminghamLicensed 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>
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<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/1010092018-09-05T10:36:36Z2018-09-05T10:36:36ZBlack student activists face penalty in college admissions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234347/original/file-20180830-195310-4d9xfo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black students who express an interest in racial justice are less likely to get a response from predominantly white, private liberal arts colleges, new research shows.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-portrait-stunned-surprised-businessman-black-226305721?src=l1t-EDhflHu_mb5yDctRZQ-5-63">AshTproductions/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Back when I taught at a predominantly white, selective liberal arts college, I came across a book called <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/acting-white-9780195382587?cc=us&lang=en&">“Acting White? Rethinking Race in ‘Post-Racial’ America.”</a></p>
<p>In the book, legal scholars Devon Carbado and Mitu Gulati argue that in the “post-racial” era, white-controlled organizations prefer to hire “‘good blacks’ who will think of themselves as people first and black people second.”</p>
<p>“They will neither ‘play the race card’ nor generate racial antagonism or tensions in the workplace,” the book contends. “They will not let white people feel guilty about being white; and they will work hard to assimilate themselves into the firm’s culture.”</p>
<p>This lets an employer realize the benefits of diversity without having to deal with issues of race, Carbado and Gulati argue.</p>
<p>Their critique made me wonder: Do America’s colleges and universities act the same way toward black students in the admissions process?</p>
<p>Based on a recent <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332649218792579">nationwide study</a> that I conducted, the answer is: yes.</p>
<p>What I found is that historically and predominantly white institutions are more likely to embrace black students who don’t profess interest in racial justice. </p>
<h2>Preferences at play</h2>
<p>In other words, similar to how the authors of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/acting-white-9780195382587?cc=us&lang=en&">“Acting White”</a> argue that white employers like black employees who see themselves as people first, and black people second, my study found that white colleges like black students who see themselves as students first, and black students maybe second or third or fourth, if at all.</p>
<p>Why does this matter? </p>
<p>It matters because this is a time when issues of race and racism on campus – and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811116302211">student-led efforts to fight racism</a> – continue to command considerable attention. Black students are demanding that white colleges <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/11/30/student-activists-want-more-black-faculty-members-how-realistic-are-some-their-goals">hire more faculty of color</a>, remove racist iconography, such as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/confederacy-still-haunts-campus-ole-miss-n820881">Confederate soldier statues</a> and <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/121382/forgotten-racist-past-american-universities">rename buildings that pay homage to slave owners</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Portland’s Resistance co-founder Gregory McKelvey speaks on why protest is important.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research suggests that black students who state that they plan to fight for these kinds of things might never get the chance to set foot on campus of the college of their choice. </p>
<h2>Racial hostility on campus</h2>
<p>It also matters because this is a time when black students are facing hostile environments on campus. At Yale, for instance, earlier this year a white student called police on a black student who was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html">napping in a common area</a>. I would argue this is a time when America’s college campuses need more students eager to fight racism, not just acquiesce.</p>
<p>It’s not that white colleges don’t want black students – many do. A 2014 <a href="https://www.maguireassoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Chronicle-Shaping-the-Class.pdf">report</a> showed that nearly all enrollment leaders at hundreds of public and private historically and predominantly white institutions indicated a goal to enroll “diverse students.” Research shows this often means <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08841241.2013.867920">black students</a>. </p>
<p>However, what my study shows is that these institutions are more likely to screen out black students who vocalize opposition to racism.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234344/original/file-20180830-195313-fcyfw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234344/original/file-20180830-195313-fcyfw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234344/original/file-20180830-195313-fcyfw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234344/original/file-20180830-195313-fcyfw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234344/original/file-20180830-195313-fcyfw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234344/original/file-20180830-195313-fcyfw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234344/original/file-20180830-195313-fcyfw4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Berkeley High School students waged a non-violent protest in 2015 over anonymous racist hate messages found on campus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/berkeleycanov-5-2015-700-berkeley-high-335844179?src=3ntjyEB8aFzTQz8zHIwUHA-1-1">cdrin/www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I refer to this expectation of a public, post-racial posture and politics as <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7934256/_If_People_Stopped_Talking_about_Race_It_Wouldnt_be_a_Problem_Anymore_Silencing_the_Myth_of_a_Color-Blind_Society">the color-blind imperative</a>. Deviating from it can result in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/24/george-yancy-dear-white-america-philosopher-confront-racism">negative consequences</a>, especially for blacks, as such individuals are often seen among many whites as divisive, racial rabble-rousers, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/10/us/white-racism-class-florida-gulf-coast-university-trnd/index.html">as I myself have been</a>.</p>
<h2>A closer look</h2>
<p>To investigate whether white admissions counselors were screening black high school students who don’t adhere to the color-blind imperative, I conducted <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2332649218792579">a nationwide audit study</a>. I began by generating and testing a list of distinctly black names, such as Lakisha Lewis and Keshawn Grant, that would signal to white admissions counselors that the students who were emailing them were black. I then created an email account for each name.</p>
<p>Next, I created four email templates that represented black students interested in 1) math and English, 2) environmental sustainability, 3) African-American history and culture, and 4) <a href="https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist/">anti-racism</a>. In each one the fictitious student asked if he or she would be a good “fit” for the school based on their interests and activities.</p>
<p>I sent a random sample of 500-plus white admissions counselors at the same number of private, historically and predominantly white colleges across the United States, two of the four emails from two fictitious black high school students approximately one month apart. I selected small or medium-sized colleges and universities from U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 list of best colleges.</p>
<p>To identify white admissions counselors, a research assistant and I used profile pictures from college websites or websites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Only those counselors who both of us independently agreed appeared white were classified as white.</p>
<p>My findings revealed that white admissions counselors were, on average, 26 percent less likely to respond to the emails of black students whose interests and involvements focused on anti-racism and racial justice. The gender of the counselor and the student also mattered. White male counselors were 37 percent less likely to respond to anti-racist black students. And when black women students committed to anti-racism were emailing white male counselors, they were 50 percent less likely to receive a response.</p>
<p>The most extreme finding was the difference in the response rate for white male counselors responding to black women. Black women interested in environmental sustainability got a response rate of 74 percent, while those who presented the anti-racist narrative got a response rate of 37 percent. Stated differently, white male admissions counselors were twice as likely to respond to black women if they were committed to fighting environmental degradation instead of white racism. This indicates that it was not activism that depressed the response rate of anti-racist black students, but rather the focus of their activism.</p>
<h2>Degrees of race consciousness</h2>
<p>Noteworthy, too, is the finding that white admissions counselors were just as responsive to moderately race conscious black students who participated in culturally resonant activities, such as a jazz band and gospel choir and who mentioned the phrase “cross-cultural understanding,” as they were to black students who revealed no interest in racialized involvements. This suggests, in other words, that it was not simply race consciousness, but a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/9969456/Resistance_and_Assent_How_Racial_Socialization_Shapes_Black_Students_Experience_Learning_African_American_History_in_High_School">critical race consciousness</a> – one that unequivocally challenges the validity of color-blind ideology – that seemed to be unappealing to some white admissions counselors.</p>
<p>Importantly, the screening pattern I uncovered doesn’t necessarily show that admissions counselors are purposefully discriminating against anti-racist black students, but it doesn’t preclude it, either. Whatever the case may be, there are clear, concrete and immediate steps that administrators can take to curtail this racially discriminatory practice.</p>
<h2>Policy solutions</h2>
<p>Some may think the solution is for black students who actively fight racism to masquerade as something that they are not. One problem with that approach is it’s difficult, if not impossible, to be vocal against racism and not leave evidence of one’s anti-racist activism in their digital footprint. For that reason, I focus my solutions on what institutions can do, not how black students should comport themselves to fit into a white environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234511/original/file-20180901-195298-1osslae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&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 cheer while listening to members of the black student protest group Concerned Student 1950 at the University of Missouri.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Campus-Protests/cc438a60f5564b76bac5f2ac1e0f1a01/95/0">Jeff Roberson/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, chief admissions administrators should familiarize themselves and their staff with the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/acting-white-9780195382587?cc=us&lang=en&#">research</a> on <a href="https://www.academia.edu/14657188/Racial_Salience_and_the_Consequences_of_Making_White_People_Uncomfortable_Intra-Racial_Discrimination_Racial_Screening_and_the_Maintenance_of_White_Supremacy">intra-racial discrimination</a>.</p>
<p>Second, schools should institute policies requiring admissions counselors to respond to all inquiry emails. Currently, the <a href="https://www.nacacnet.org/">National Association for College Admission Counseling</a> doesn’t have any best practices for email or inquiry response, according to an association official I spoke with for this article.</p>
<p>Third, the chief admissions administrator should develop a system whereby all admissions staff emails are randomly audited for responsiveness, content and tone.</p>
<p>Fourth, and most importantly, as with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/04/a-simple-legal-way-to-help-stop-employment-discrimination/274519/">employment discrimination</a>, there must be appropriate sanctions and consistent enforcement to maximize compliance. Such a system would incentivize admissions counselors to act in a non-discriminatory manner toward not only black students but all students committed to fighting against white racism and white supremacy.</p>
<p>Might this intervention come at a financial cost to colleges and universities? Perhaps. But it should not be a prohibitive one. Either way it is necessary. If some white admissions counselors don’t even respond to an inquiry email due to a black student’s commitment to racial justice, how can they be trusted to treat these students fairly at the application stage?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Thornhill is affiliated with the American Sociological Association and the Midwest Sociological Society. </span></em></p>New research by sociologist Ted Thornhill shows that black students who indicate they plan to fight for racial justice are more likely to be ignored by white admissions counselors.Ted Thornhill, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityLicensed 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>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revolution-starts-on-campus-102243">Revolution Starts on Campus</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<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/860642017-10-29T19:10:50Z2017-10-29T19:10:50ZHow should Australia respond to China’s influence in our universities?<p>The federal government is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-china-university/australia-campuses-warned-of-clandestine-influence-in-apparent-poke-at-china-idUSKBN1CU0LZ">concerned</a> about <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-25/government-very-conscious-foreign-interference-australian-unis/9082948">Chinese influence</a> in Australia, particularly on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-10/universities-urged-to-be-vigilant-over-chinese-influence/9032840">universities</a>. While we don’t know exactly how deep this influence runs, we do know quite a bit. </p>
<p>Financially, many Australian universities depend on international students from mainland China. It was <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/research-unis-rely-on-chinese-fees/news-story/ba330001d697fa9c54325d8c824c4569">recently suggested</a> that 16% of the University of Sydney’s revenue comes from these students. Over the past two decades, this rapid change has made universities look and feel different.</p>
<p>From a financial perspective, it didn’t really matter if universities changed; the more enrolments the better. From a social perspective, university administrators <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2012.642838">suggested</a> that the presence of Chinese students would create mutually beneficial cross-cultural communication and exchange. Academics initially thought that while it might take a while, Chinese students would “adjust” to Australia. </p>
<p>More recently, academics have come to a more pessimistic conclusion: Chinese students in Australia inhabit a “<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13676261.2014.992316?journalCode=cjys20">parallel society</a>”, in which they engage with Australian society only rarely.</p>
<p>The combination of these factors — Australia’s financial dependence on China, the increasing Chinese presence in Australia, the disconnection of mainland Chinese students from Australian society and culture, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) increasing global assertiveness — has begun to create conflict.</p>
<h2>What are the conflicts?</h2>
<p>When university students and teachers discuss contentious issues relating to China, they often face criticism from PRC students. The criticism can be harsh, well-organised, and heavily publicised. Cases at the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-41104634">University of Newcastle</a>, <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/monash-throws-out-the-textbook-over-chinese-student-complaints/news-story/3453651355ed61ab28989e7623c8dd9d">Monash University</a>, and the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/the-patriotic-education-of-chinese-students-at-australian-universities-20161003-gru13j.html">Australian National University</a> illustrate the scope of the problem. </p>
<p>Nothing about student protest is inherently undesirable. In fact, it is a manifestation of the academic freedom that university students deserve – and would not have in China. But what constitutes a “contentious issue”, and who is orchestrating this criticism? Examining the issues disputed makes two things clear: first, that the issues Chinese students deem “contentious” are exactly the same issues that the Chinese government deems “contentious”, particularly those relating to China’s territorial integrity and history. Second, that the
organisations orchestrating the response to these issues, particularly the <a href="https://umsu.unimelb.edu.au/clubs/chinese-students-and-scholars-association/">Chinese Students and Scholars Association</a> (CSSA), are funded by and work closely with Chinese state bodies such as consulates. </p>
<p>This runs in parallel with a steady intensification of “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/engineering-stability-authoritarian-political-control-over-university-students-in-postdeng-china/DFF63BFB9FFE0C884DB795B587616ED9">ideological education</a>” in the PRC, together with attempts to shape how China is seen by the world through <a href="http://english.hanban.org/node_7870.htm">Confucius Institutes</a>, the CSSA, and other “soft power” bodies. At <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress/chinas-xi-lays-out-vision-for-new-era-led-by-still-stronger-communist-party-idUSKBN1CM35L">last week’s Party Congress</a>, President Xi Jinping stated China’s priority is to become a globally “stronger” nation.</p>
<p>So, should universities and the Australian government draw the line at some point? Should they ban or restrict contentious organisations? And if these groups cause friction on campus, how should university students and administrators respond?</p>
<hr>
<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/telling-chinese-students-to-conform-wont-fix-cross-cultural-issues-85666">Telling Chinese students to conform won't fix cross-cultural issues</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Three main issues in question</h2>
<p><strong>Is this really the Chinese government’s fault?</strong> </p>
<p>In some ways, yes. The chain of command is clear: from the PRC government to consulates to student organisations to students. On the other hand, students often don’t need to be encouraged to support Chinese interests. Teachers hear spontaneous outbursts of nationalism in class all the time.</p>
<p>Students in the CSSA are being manipulated by the PRC government, but they are individuals too. Universities should set a high standard for suppressing individual views. Supporting one government’s policies does not meet that standard.</p>
<p><strong>Who is really being harmed here?</strong></p>
<p>Broadly speaking, local students and academics are hearing views they don’t want to hear, often inaccurate, and frequently phrased in an inflammatory way. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Student politics is fundamentally confrontational. If local students and academics disagree, we can speak up, as
<a href="https://www.woroni.com.au/words/the-truth-about-the-chinese-students-and-scholars-association/">several students</a> have done. </p>
<p>The more severe harms are to Chinese-background students,
whether or not they are from the PRC. Chinese culture is not the same as PRC culture. It is complex and diverse, and Chinese students have <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/crcs/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CRCS-Report-of-Chinese-Students-in-the-US_Final-Version.pdf">wide-ranging views</a> on many topics. As a teacher of Chinese students, I am not particularly concerned when my students support the PRC. They have many reasons to do so. But I am extremely concerned when students tell me that they are afraid to criticise China, even in essays, because they are worried that their fellow Chinese students will attack them.</p>
<p>When dissenting Chinese students are ostracised by student organisations, this harms the dissenting students, who lose the valuable cultural connections and support that student organisations provide. It also harms the majority of PRC students, who never get the opportunity to debate ideas suppressed in the PRC media, and who accept too frequently that the views of the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_politics/government/html/1.stm">Communist Party of China</a> (CPC) are correct and normal.</p>
<p><strong>What right do universities have to intervene in student organisations</strong>?</p>
<p>As a rule, academic freedom should apply to everyone in the university. While it is reasonable to suggest that it should be restricted in some circumstances (for example, to restrict fascist organisations), the trend towards <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137587848">censoriousness on campus</a> is also concerning. Free speech should be paramount, even when the CSSA says things people don’t like. Banning or restricting the CSSA, for example, would have no effect on the PRC but would irritate and harm many Chinese students.</p>
<p>It should not end there. Universities can actively facilitate diversity in debate. Responsible universities would prioritise funding to the setup of Chinese student groups without political alignment and to facilitating debate about contentious topics relating to China. They would also give prominent dissenters, like <a href="https://www.woroni.com.au/words/red-fingertips-chinese-political-refugee-friend-of-ai-weiwei-and-anu-student-tells-his-story/">Wu Lebao</a>, special support.</p>
<h2>What do we need to do?</h2>
<p>Australian universities have sometimes been naive about China. Chinese students have been admitted in large numbers <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/12/english-language-test-international-students-essential-birmingham">without concern for their academic skills</a>, <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=332480460154352;res=IELAPA">taught without concern for their social and cultural needs</a>, and little has been done to help them adapt to Australia and its culture. Under these circumstances, it’s not surprising that they feel disconnected from universities and turn to student organisations that speak their language and understand their culture. </p>
<p>Universities need to have the courage to do two contrasting things: they should both acknowledge that the opinions of the CSSA are opinions that many Chinese students hold, and provide avenues for alternative points of view. This would allow students to hear debates about China and reflect on China critically — something they cannot do within Chinese borders. This would not create a new band of anti-PRC revolutionaries, but it would do something rather rare at Australian universities — treat Chinese students as humans with the capacity for rational thought.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Benney 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>Australian universities shouldn’t silence or be silenced by Chinese students who hold nationalistic views, they should encourage a healthy debate.Jonathan Benney, Lecturer in Chinese Studies, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/776092017-06-28T01:42:09Z2017-06-28T01:42:09ZNew legislation may make free speech on campus less free<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175734/original/file-20170626-3062-n7enr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators gather in anticipation of controversial speaker Ann Coulter near the University of California, Berkeley campus, April 27, 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the country, state lawmakers have been talking about – and legislating – ways intended to protect free speech on college campuses.</p>
<p>The Wisconsin State Assembly, for example, recently <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2017/06/21/wisconsin-assembly-taking-up-campus-free-speech-bill/403267001/">passed a campus speech bill</a> that would require public colleges and universities to punish students who disrupt campus speakers. The legislation is now heading to the State Senate for consideration.</p>
<p>As a higher education law researcher and campus free speech supporter, I view some requirements in these new campus speech laws as positively reinforcing legal protections for student free speech. However, I believe language in several pending state bills, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/04/28/north-carolina-wisconsin-bills-would-mandate-punishment-campus-speech">including the punitive legislation proposed in Wisconsin</a>, does more to impede free speech than protect it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175722/original/file-20170626-29117-96swex.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">Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was one of the chief sponsors of a bill that requires public universities in Wisconsin to discipline students who disrupt speeches and presentations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Scott Bauer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Free speech zones</h2>
<p>In an effort to keep campuses safe and avoid disruption, some universities have restricted student speech and expressive activity – such as handing out leaflets or gathering signatures for petitions – to special speech zones.</p>
<p>These “free speech zones” have been subject to <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-03-28/campus-free-speech-zones-face-new-round-of-scrutiny">criticism and legal challenges</a>. In one illustrative case, a federal court invalidated a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12043692981173000551&q=%22university+of+cincinnati%22+free+speech+zone+limited+public+forum&hl=en&as_sdt=3,25">University of Cincinnati policy</a> that limited student demonstrations, picketing and rallies to one small portion of campus.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has not ruled definitively on the legality of designated student speech zones. Consequently, legal battles over their constitutionality continue, as shown by <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-essential-education-updates-southern-pierce-college-student-files-lawsuit-1490737382-htmlstory.html">pending litigation</a> involving a Los Angeles community college student who claims he was allowed to distribute copies of the U.S. Constitution only in a designated campus speech zone.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175720/original/file-20170626-29070-tadw6j.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>
<p>Some states have recently enacted laws that prohibit public colleges and universities from enforcing such free speech zones against students. At least seven states have passed anti-speech zone laws: <a href="http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-education/2017/03/states-seek-to-scrap-free-speech-zones-219089">Virginia, Missouri, Arizona</a>, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/2017/04/04/free-speech-zones-abolished-on-colorado-campuses/">Colorado</a>, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/05/11/tennessee-free-speech-bill-signed-law">Tennessee</a>, <a href="https://le.utah.gov/%7E2017/bills/static/HB0054.html">Utah</a> and <a href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/17RS/SB17.htm">Kentucky</a>. </p>
<p>Public institutions in these states may impose reasonable rules to avoid disruption, but officials cannot relegate student free speech and expression to only small or remote areas on campus. Instead, they must permit free speech in most open campus locations, such as courtyards and sidewalks.</p>
<p>Along with the pending legislation in Wisconsin, which also would <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2017/proposals/reg/asm/bill/ab299">ban speech zones</a>, <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article146828989.html">North Carolina</a>, <a href="http://michiganradio.org/post/committee-hearing-held-campus-free-speech-legislation">Michigan</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2017-05-11/texas-senates-votes-to-bar-college-free-speech-zones">Texas</a> and <a href="http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2017/06/campus_free_speech_passes.html">Louisiana</a> are considering similar legislation. </p>
<p>Striking down these “free speech zones” seems a sensible way to promote student free speech: In my opinion, institutions shouldn’t seek to restrict students’ First Amendment speech rights to strict borders on campus.</p>
<h2>Punishing protesters</h2>
<p>If the Wisconsin bill passes in its current form, the state would do more than ban designated free speech zones. It would also become the first state requiring institutions to punish student protesters. The North Carolina House of Representatives has passed a similar <a href="http://ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2017&BillID=HB+527&submitButton=Go">bill</a>, now under review in the State Senate, but this legislation seems to leave institutions more <a href="http://www.wral.com/unc-officials-ok-with-revised-free-speech-bill/16662870/">discretion</a> over dealing with students disrupting speakers than the Wisconsin legislation.</p>
<p>Much of the push for campus speech bills has come from lawmakers who believe that college campuses are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/22/wisconsin-assembly-advances-bill-to-suspend-or-expel-students-who-disrupt-campus-speakers/?utm_term=.7cf4123fc999">hostile to conservative speakers</a>. They point to incidents such as those involving <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/27/us/berkeley-ann-coulter-free-speech/index.html">Ann Coulter</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/berkeley-milo-yiannopoulos-and-the-lessons-of-free-speech-72651?sr=1">Milo Yiannopoulos</a> at the University of California at Berkeley as indicative of an overall resistance to conservative speakers on campus.</p>
<p>Provisions in campus speech bills, including ones mandating penalties for students who disrupt speakers, can largely be <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/05/05/527092506/states-consider-legislation-to-protect-free-speech-on-campus">traced</a> to <a href="http://goldwaterinstitute.org/en/work/topics/constitutional-rights/free-speech/campus-free-speech-a-legislative-proposal/">model legislation</a> from the Goldwater Institute, based in Phoenix, Arizona. The group aims to correct what it views as a left-leaning bias in American higher education regarding campus free speech.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175735/original/file-20170626-29085-te2hk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&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 protester is escorted out of commencement exercises during a speech by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, May 10, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/John Raoux, File</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my view, forcing colleges to take punitive action against all disruptive protesters is troublesome. Such a requirement would mean that institutions would be faced with devising overly cumbersome rules for when punishment should or should not occur. But what counts as a punishment-worthy disruption? </p>
<p>A more problematic outcome would be if free speech were <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/As-a-Free-Speech-Bill-Advances/240433">chilled</a>. Students might understandably refrain from speech and expressive activity based on fear of punishment, particularly if the rules around such punishment are necessarily vague and difficult to understand. </p>
<p>Based on such concerns, the <a href="https://www.thefire.org/">Foundation for Individual Rights in Education</a> – an influential group that promotes, among other things, student free speech in higher education – has <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/15/critics-proposed-legislation-first-amendment-rights-wisconsin-public-universities">come out against this particular requirement</a> in the Wisconsin bill. The American Civil Liberties Union has also <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/education/article148662214.html">expressed concern</a> over the similar provision under consideration in North Carolina.</p>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>The Wisconsin bill is <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2017/06/21/wisconsin-assembly-taking-up-campus-free-speech-bill/403267001/">described by supporters</a> as intended to protect the right of campus speakers to be heard. However, it seeks to accomplish this goal in a way that undermines student free speech of all types.</p>
<p>Hopefully, lawmakers in Wisconsin and in other states considering legislation will stick to workable measures that actually promote – as opposed to hinder – campus free speech.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neal H. Hutchens 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>New laws pending in Wisconsin and North Carolina would require public universities to punish students who disrupt campus speakers. But these laws would do more to hinder free speech than protect it.Neal H. Hutchens, Professor of Higher Education, University of MississippiLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/740462017-05-12T01:19:46Z2017-05-12T01:19:46ZWhat the 1970 Kent State shootings tell us about universities then and now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168168/original/file-20170505-19124-6hlweq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Banners on the campus of Kent State University commemorating the anniversary of the May 4 shootings.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jeff Glidden</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1997, a student I taught while I was a Fulbright scholar in Turkey came to visit our home in Cleveland. Asked what sites he might want to visit, he immediately suggested nearby Kent State. On May 4, 1970, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0504.html">students protesting the Vietnam War were killed and wounded</a> on the Kent State campus by troops from the Ohio National Guard. He wanted to see the place it had all happened. </p>
<p>The May 4 shootings at Kent State are remembered (<a href="http://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=dtah">and taught</a>) as an iconic moment in U.S. history, yet this was a single shocking occurrence in an era filled with <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/03/12/the-1960s-polarization-cynicism-and-the-youth-rebellionredirect">stories and images of violence</a>. </p>
<p>As a scholar of the history of northeastern Ohio, I’ve seen that May 4 is embedded in a broad historical context of changes in higher education and social movements. But as a student during the late 1960s, I also tend to find “myself” in images of the era, imbuing them with a personal connection.</p>
<p>Together, this historical context and the personal perspective call into question the purpose of a university education. What do the May 4 shootings at Kent State tell us about role of the university in today’s climate of student protest?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168999/original/file-20170511-32588-1wd32z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ohio National Guard moving in on protesting students at Kent State University. May 4, 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A ‘new’ collegiate America</h2>
<p>The May 4 shootings occurred amidst two important moments of growth: that of higher education in the U.S. and that of activism in general throughout the country.</p>
<p>During the 1950s, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf#page=74">enrollment in American colleges and universities increased</a> by 49 percent and in the 1960s by 120 percent. There were multiple triggers for this incredible change, particularly the postwar “baby boom” and an increase in <a href="https://www.villanovau.com/resources/military/history-of-the-gi-bill/#.WQygydTysdU">federal and state support for higher education</a>. </p>
<p>Kent State, which began as a small teacher training school in 1910, was among the colleges experiencing significant postwar growth. By the 1960s, it had evolved into <a href="http://www.kent.edu/historicalview">a large research campus</a> in an expanding Ohio state college system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168805/original/file-20170510-21615-1nchnbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protest marchers demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 1968.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This new collegiate America intersected with the social activist movements prominent at the time: <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/civil-rights-movement/essays/civil-rights-movement-major-events-and-legacies">civil rights</a>, <a href="https://tavaana.org/en/content/1960s-70s-american-feminist-movement-breaking-down-barriers-women">gender equity</a>, the <a href="https://sixties-social-movements-3.wikispaces.com/Environmentalism">environment</a> and opposition to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/opinion/sunday/vietnam-the-war-that-killed-trust.html?_r=0">an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam</a>.</p>
<p>These movements found their way to colleges and universities, as social activism became part of the intellectual discourse on campuses. The <a href="https://calisphere.org/exhibitions/43/the-free-speech-movement/">free speech movement</a> at Berkeley in 1965 and a major <a href="http://www.columbia1968.com/history/">protest at Columbia</a> in 1968 were immediate precedents for protests at Kent and other campuses.</p>
<p>Protests at <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/465036.html">the 1968 Democratic National Convention</a> and the early 1960s <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-was-the-protest-group-students-for-a-democratic-society-five-questions-answered-76849">rise of Students for a Democratic Society</a> also accelerated protest movements on campus – at Kent State and elsewhere.</p>
<p>By the late 1960s, the Vietnam war was “the” issue on campuses across the nation, though it was undoubtedly linked to other causes including race and economic justice.</p>
<h2>May 4, 1970: Reality and ripples</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=987&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=987&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168448/original/file-20170508-20740-y8o02e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=987&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Newsweek’s cover from May 18, 1970 featured a crop of John Filo’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.newsweek.com/my-god-theyre-killing-us-our-1970-coverage-kent-state-328108">Newsweek via John Filo, Valley News-Dispatch</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One could argue that it was a single image – the photograph of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/06/us/kneeling-with-death-haunted-a-life.html">Mary Ann Vecchio</a> kneeling over the body of a slain Kent State student – that <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126423778">lifts May 4 above the ordinary</a>. Like Nick Ut’s iconic image of <a href="https://qz.com/779082/facebooks-censoring-of-the-iconic-napalm-girl-photo-showcases-its-disturbing-power-to-rewrite-history/">Vietnamese children fleeing a napalm attack</a>, the image is so powerful that it becomes the story.</p>
<p>The photo’s potency is particularly immediate for those who attended college during that era. It, perhaps, becomes “their” image, placing May 4 into a more personal perspective.</p>
<p>But is it possible to recognize the historical context of the May 4 shootings and escape one’s personal connection to the event?</p>
<p>Thomas Grace does just that in his new book, <a href="http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/kent-state">“Kent State: Death and Dissent in the Long Sixties</a>.” Grace was a student at Kent State at the time, wounded during the events of May 4. His book, in my view, provides a nonbiased and contextual examination of the tragedy. Though the 1970 protests at Kent must be a very personal experience for him, Grace recognizes that they had deeper roots in American society, including pro-labor demonstrations at Kent itself in the late 1950s. </p>
<p>Indeed, Grace’s book prompts those who experienced the era, myself included, to step back and refocus the lens of our experiences.</p>
<p>May 4 catalyzed protests and strikes at <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED083899.pdf">over 400 other colleges and universities</a>. Among them was Case Western Reserve (CWRU), just 34 miles away in Cleveland, Ohio. I was a junior at Case Western at the time of the shootings. </p>
<p>Like the students at Kent, students at CWRU had been protesting the Vietnam War and the presence of student military programs on the campus. Like Kent, <a href="http://ech.case.edu/cgi/article.pl?id=VW">activism at CWRU</a> had a longer history: organizing a sit-in the previous year relating to racial inequality, helping campus workers organize for better pay and conditions and protesting the university’s partnerships with companies doing business with the military.</p>
<p>When the news from Kent State reached Cleveland late in the day on May 4, <a href="http://blog.case.edu/archives/2015/04/30/may_4_1970">protest at CWRU accelerated</a>. Students blocked a major thoroughfare on campus and formed a strike committee. I stood by the side of the street watching – perhaps vicariously joining those on the street – and, then, with scores of other students, fled when mounted police forcefully broke up the protest.</p>
<h2>Defining the purpose of higher education</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169002/original/file-20170511-32618-11yh1t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169002/original/file-20170511-32618-11yh1t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169002/original/file-20170511-32618-11yh1t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169002/original/file-20170511-32618-11yh1t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169002/original/file-20170511-32618-11yh1t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169002/original/file-20170511-32618-11yh1t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169002/original/file-20170511-32618-11yh1t5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Case Western Reserve President Robert Morse meeting with students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://case.edu/its/archives/presidents/mor1356.htm">Case Western Reserve University Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many colleges and universities in 1970 responded to the personal and historical context of the May 4 shootings by contemplating the role of higher education in the U.S. My alma mater was among them.</p>
<p>Robert W. Morse, president of CWRU at the time, sought a balance between open uncensored discourse and closing the university. Central to his actions was his concept of the purpose of a university, something he described in <a href="https://case.edu/its/archives/presidents/OfTempestAndTrust_1970-07-13_speech.pdf">a 1970 speech</a> delivered two months after May 4:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Let us always remind ourselves that universities are, or should be, radical enterprises: radical because they are based on the proposition that the world can and must be transformed into something better, radical because they are based on the proposition that man through his intellect, his initiative, and his integrity can advance his own well-being. Universities, if they are functioning as they should, are predisposed to question, to debate, to change, to criticize, and to challenge.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Caught between radical student activists, a somewhat divided faculty and a conservative board, Morse <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Case-Western-Reserve-University-1826-1976/dp/0316160016">involuntarily resigned</a> later that year. </p>
<p>So what is the legacy of the May 4 shootings at Kent State? </p>
<p>Did it, as some argue, effectively “kill” the protest movement? Or did it help <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2012/01/us-military-draft-ends-jan-27-1973-072085">end the draft</a> and, eventually, the war?</p>
<p>In my view, it’s a bit more than that. </p>
<p>Many who lived during the time of the May 4 shootings have <a href="http://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2015/above-the-shots/">a personal take</a> on the events, either through experiences at their own universities or that single photo of Mary Ann Vecchio and the body of Jeffrey Miller.</p>
<p>Still others see only <a href="http://www.dacapopress.com/book/67-shots/9780306823794">the historical context</a>, with deeper questions as to the core motivation, effect and level of conviction of the anti-war movement. </p>
<p>May 4 does, however, prompt a broader question of <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-talk-about-free-speech-on-campus-76840">what the role of universities ought to be</a> when it comes to student activism and free speech – both then and now. It is in many ways a marker, albeit tragic, to which much contemporary campus activism is compared. </p>
<p>Remember my Turkish student who came visiting? Well, it turns out he had his own radical political leanings – indeed, he ran an anarchist website from his dorm room. I think he would have appreciated President Morse’s remarks at CWRU. Perhaps this view, which centers on universities as “radical enterprise,” is what attracted my Turkish student to visit Kent State nearly 30 years after the shootings.</p>
<p>In my view, this idea of higher education as a place for ushering in change, challenging public discourse and driving mankind through intellect is why universities must remain a center for activism today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74046/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Grabowski 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 May 4, 1970 shootings at Kent State still loom large in our national conscience. What do these events tell us about the role of the university in today’s climate of student protest?John Grabowski, Krieger-Mueller Joint Professor in History, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed 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/768492017-05-03T01:13:53Z2017-05-03T01:13:53ZWhat was the protest group Students for a Democratic Society? 5 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167378/original/file-20170501-17287-1r3i3jm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students for a Democratic Society was the largest – and arguably most successful – student activist organization in U.S. history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AVietnamdem.jpg">S.Sgt. Albert R. Simpson, Department of Defense / via Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: Recent events have brought student activism back into the spotlight. No student activist organization in U.S. history has matched the scope and influence of <a href="https://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=12">Students for a Democratic Society</a> (SDS), the national movement of the 1960s. We asked Todd Gitlin, former president of SDS (1963-1964), professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University, and author of <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/60551/">The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage</a> for his perspective on this renowned organization and the state of student protest today.</em></p>
<h2>1. What were the goals of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) when it started?</h2>
<p>SDS wanted <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07393140903492118">participatory democracy</a> – a public committed to making the decisions that affect their own lives, with institutions to make this possible. Its members saw an American citizenry with no influence over the nuclear arms race or, closer to home, authoritarian university administrations.</p>
<p>The organization favored direct action to oppose “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=0x1eAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148">white supremacy</a>” and “<a href="http://www.sds-1960s.org/sds_wuo/sds_documents/paul_potter.html">imperial war</a>,” and to achieve <a href="http://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/files/original/92b384e1787664c748a39cb196c18f84.pdf">civil rights</a> and the <a href="http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt4k4003k7">radical reconstruction of economic life</a> (i.e., the redistribution of money into the hands of African-Americans in order to fight racism). SDS was increasingly suspicious of established authorities and <a href="http://www.sds-1960s.org/Care-Feeding-Power-Structures.pdf">looked askance at corporate power</a>. But there was no single political doctrine; for most of its existence (1962-69), <a href="http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/60551/">SDS was an amalgam</a> of left-liberal, socialist, anarchist and increasingly Marxist currents and tendencies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167395/original/file-20170501-17319-adq3mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167395/original/file-20170501-17319-adq3mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167395/original/file-20170501-17319-adq3mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167395/original/file-20170501-17319-adq3mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167395/original/file-20170501-17319-adq3mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167395/original/file-20170501-17319-adq3mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167395/original/file-20170501-17319-adq3mi.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">Several hundred people affiliated with the SDS race through the Los Angeles Civic Center in a 1968 demonstration against the Vietnam war.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-CA-USA-APHS445390-Vietnam-War-Protest/1c2b4068c1464b41af43a0ea185fed4b/7/0">AP Photo/Harold Filan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From 1965 on, it was focused chiefly on <a href="https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC30_scans/30.sds.calltostudents.marchonwashington.pdf">opposing the Vietnam war</a>. After 1967, SDS became partial to confrontational tactics and increasingly sympathetic to one or another idea of a Marxist-Leninist revolution.</p>
<h2>2. How did SDS grow so quickly, from fewer than 1,000 members in 1962 to as many as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zQHMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT579">100,000</a> in 1969?</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167394/original/file-20170501-17319-ulnvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tom Hayden, president of SDS from 1962 to 1963.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-California-Unite-/acd9a027dce6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/62/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The organization was launched with a stirring manifesto, the <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Port_Huron_Statement">Port Huron Statement</a>, and a leadership that was passionate, visionary, energetic, stylish and thoughtful.</p>
<p>Unlike most left-wing radicals and manifestos of the time, the Port Huron Statement was forthright and not riddled with jargon, thus its opening sentence:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>SDS, in language and spirit, spoke to a widely felt need for a <a href="http://www.sds-1960s.org/NewLeftNotes-vol1-no01.pdf">New Left</a> that was free of the dogmas about “class struggle” and a “<a href="https://socialistworker.org/2012/07/20/what-is-a-vanguard-party">vanguard party</a>” that prevailed in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.</p>
<p>Its growth was helped along by a structure that, for many years, was flexible enough to encompass diverse orientations and styles of activism. Its volcanic growth after the 1965 escalation of the Vietnam War was made possible by its combination of zealous idealism and pragmatic activity that made sense to students – protests, demonstrations, sit-ins and marches.</p>
<h2>3. Why did the SDS effectively dissolve in 1969? Were the Weathermen (the militant radical faction of SDS) to blame?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=829&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167375/original/file-20170501-17313-14hbfix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1042&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poster from the 1969 Days of Rage demonstrations, organized by the Weathermen faction of SDS.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.sds-1960s.org/sds_wuo/images/sds_bring_the_war_home.jpg">SDS-1960s.org</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Under the pressure of the Vietnam War and black militancy in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, SDS’ leadership factions adopted fantastical ideas, believing they were living in a revolutionary moment. The Weathermen were the most ferocious, dogmatic and reckless of the factions. Inspired by <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1123-the-way-the-wind-blew">Latin American, Southeast Asian and Chinese revolutionaries</a>, but heedless of American realities, they thought that by stoking up violent confrontations, they could “<a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520241190">bring the war home</a>” – force the U.S. government out of Vietnam to deal with a violent domestic revolt.</p>
<p>On <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/bomb-detonates-greenwich-village-1970-article-1.2136142">March 6, 1970</a>, a dynamite bomb they were building in New York City – intended to blow up hundreds of soldiers and their dates at a dance that evening – went off in their own hands, killing three of their own number. The Weather Underground (as the faction now called itself) went on to bomb <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/weather-underground-bombings">dozens of government and corporate targets</a> over the next few years, but the group was incapable of leading a larger movement: Though there were no further casualties after the 1970 explosion, the vast majority of SDS’ members were put off by the Weatherman violence. As the Vietnam War came to an end, no student radical organization remained.</p>
<h2>4. What is the chief legacy of SDS?</h2>
<p>SDS tried many tactics in its effort to catalyze a national radical movement. It was multi-issue in a time when single-issue movements had proliferated: hence, the SDS slogan “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=RQ6xALay8CQC&pg=PA21">the issues are interrelated</a>.” With community organizing projects, it tried to create an <a href="http://www.sds-1960s.org/Interracial-Movement-Poor.pdf">interracial coalition of the poor</a>; it launched civil disobedience against corporations like the <a href="http://africanactivist.msu.edu/image.php?objectid=32-131-179">Chase Manhattan Bank</a>, which was seen to be supporting the South African apartheid regime; it helped launch the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-682X.00060">most effective antiwar movement in history</a>; it incarnated a generational spirit that was both visionary and practical.</p>
<p>SDS also engendered <a href="http://www.sds-1960s.org/sds_wuo/nln_iwd_1969/images/nln_iwd_1969_04.jpg">second-wave feminism</a>, though sometimes <a href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6916/">in a paradoxical fashion</a>. Many female members felt both empowered and thwarted – they gained skills and experience in organizing, but were angered by their second-class status in the organization.</p>
<p>But SDS’s confrontational tendencies from 1967 onward bitterly alienated much of its potential political base. In my view, the group’s romanticism toward the Cuban, Vietnamese, and Chinese revolutions – and its infatuation with the paramilitary Black Panther party – flooded out its common sense and intellectual integrity.</p>
<h2>5. How has campus protest changed since the days of SDS?</h2>
<p>Many changes that SDS campaigned for came to pass. Student life loosened up and became less authoritarian. In the decades since, students have taken on issues that were not raised – or even recognized – 50 years ago: <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29032017/divestment-harvard-students-climate-change">climate change</a>, <a href="https://newsone.com/3458645/students-protest-rape-brock-turner-standford-graduation/">sexual violence</a> and <a href="https://www.bu.edu/today/2016/black-lives-matter-protest/">racial subordination</a> through the criminal justice system. On the other hand, campus protest is dominated by single issues again, as it was in the period before SDS. Much of the current issue-politics rests on an assumption that racial, gender or sexual identity automatically dictates the goals of student activism.</p>
<p>I also believe that student protest has become far more modest in its ambitions. It has abandoned extreme revolutionary delusions, but at some expense. It has failed to build a tradition that’s serious about winning power: Students are content to protest rather than work toward building political majorities and trying to win concrete results.</p>
<p>I feel that student protest today often confines itself within the campus and fails to sustain organizing outside. As the right threw itself into electoral politics, student activists largely dismissed the need to compete. As a result, students of the left face the most hostile political environment in modern times.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: For analysis of other issues on campus protest, see our entire series on <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/campus-protest-38346">student protest</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Todd Gitlin 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>Student protest has been in the political spotlight since Trump’s election. Todd Gitlin, former president of Students for a Democratic Society, shares his perspective on protest in the 60s and now.Todd Gitlin, Professor of Journalism and Sociology, Columbia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/726092017-02-13T14:42:40Z2017-02-13T14:42:40ZUC Berkeley, Donald Trump and the muddled ethics of no-platforming<p>“Sounds like someone I should get to know,” one observer quipped after he heard that Brietbart’s deputy editor, <a href="https://yiannopoulos.net/">Milo Yiannopoloulos</a> had been no-platformed by students at UC Berkeley. The university, which traditionally had a reputation for free-speech activism had just cancelled a campus address by the right-wing journalist after protesters <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/02/02/violent-protests-visiting-mob-lead-berkeley-cancel-speech-milo-yiannopoulos">mounted violent protests on campus</a>. </p>
<p>Instead of silencing him, the no-platformers instead handed Yiannopoloulos the most coveted platform of all. The campus unrest made headlines, sending pre-sales for his new book “Dangerous” <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/uc-berkeley-protests-milo-yiannopoulos-new-book-pre-sales-rise-soar-alt-right-cancelled-talk-a7561356.html">soaring</a>. Suddenly Yiannopoloulos had become America’s poster boy victim of an oppressive left. Guardian columnist Matthew d'Ancona <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/06/free-speech-milo-yiannopoulos-alt-right-far-right">weighed in</a> to support the Trump cheerleader’s freedom of speech.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156208/original/image-20170209-8655-ydo4ht.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hardly a ‘no platform’ is the first comment is anything to go by.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Haven’t we been here before? In the UK, speakers such as Germaine Greer, Peter Tatchell and Julie Bindel – who, like them or loathe them, do have something to say about the world – have all become targets of <a href="http://freespeechdebate.com/en/discuss/ten-arguments-for-and-against-no-platforming/">no-platforming campaigns</a>. Each time, the only result has been nationwide news coverage, generating platforms far more prominent than the humble campus ones they had originally been seeking. </p>
<p>Donald Trump’s response to the protest was predictably loud. In a tweet, he <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/trump-threatens-uc-berkeley-after-campus-protests-milo-yiannopoulos-2017-2">threatened to cut Berkeley’s funding</a>, sending chills down many an academic’s spine. But even worse, the fiasco has actually made Trump right.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"827112633224544256"}"></div></p>
<p>Trump’s tweet has further muddied the waters in America’s ongoing free speech debates. The First Amendment is written into the American DNA – but for many who view free speech as a tool of social awareness and activism, lining up on the same side as Trump and the alt-right seems anathema. I can’t help wondering whether Berkeley’s ragtag fringe of neo-cons plotted Yiannopoloulos’ invitation for no reason but to bask in the outrage that would follow. </p>
<p>It would otherwise have been just another – mostly unnoticed – evening of Yiannopoulos regurgitating his well-worn Trumpaganda. Then suddenly Berkeley’s right-thinking brigade had upgraded it to a coast-to-coast <em>cause célèbre</em>. No-platformers insist they are combating power hierarchies. But Berkeley’s no-platformers turned Yiannopoulos – not the world’s disempowered – into America’s victim of the week.</p>
<p>When you claim to be protesting in the name of the powerless, yet constantly end up handing victory to the people in power, maybe you need to rethink your strategy. I’m not saying the students ought to shut up and give in. To the contrary, vocal opposition is needed in the US more than ever. The problem lies not with the protesters’ act of dissent, but with their aim. The students (and more than one of their professors) were not simply trying to put forth the right message. Their goal was to censor the wrong message.</p>
<h2>Real power</h2>
<p>Despite the anxieties of the no-platformers, only rarely are guest speakers the moguls of real political or social power. The world’s top corporate executives, for example, rarely accept invitations to speak in universities. It’s not that they’re too busy, but if some Exxon, Monsanto, or McDonald’s CEO were announced as a featured speaker every socially conscious student on campus would be posting on Twitter and Facebook, and holding discussions late into the night – and rightly so – about the catalogues of the company’s misdeeds committed since the day it first drew breath.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"799395506774491137"}"></div></p>
<p>That’s how real power works: not by confronting public scrutiny, but by eschewing it. The masters of the universe don’t claw their way to the top by reciting the joys of global dominance to snorting undergraduates. On the contrary, the truly powerful rule the world by shunning exposure. </p>
<p>Would that the world’s power-mongers did check in from time to time at their local student debating club. If we think universities are places for critical scrutiny of ideas, then it’s not so much tragedy as sheer farce that some no-platforming campaign would demand their cancellation “because they’re too powerful”. </p>
<p>Wielding power is the very reason people ought to be invited. If students are unable to turn up and ask challenging questions, rather than just kicking and screaming about oppression, then what are they even doing at university? And more importantly, what on earth do they think they’re accomplishing for the world’s oppressed?</p>
<p>It’s lame to brand people “snowflakes” for raising vital social concerns. But it’s lamer for the targets of that sneer to turn it into a truth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Heinze is a member of the UK Liberal Democrats. </span></em></p>Student protesters thought they were silencing someone they despise. But they actually gave their opponent a far louder voice.Eric Heinze, Professor of Law, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/726512017-02-09T03:47:08Z2017-02-09T03:47:08ZBerkeley, Milo Yiannopoulos and the lessons of free speech<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156091/original/image-20170208-17349-2iop7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protestors at the University of California, Berkeley campus oppose the appearance of Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ben Margot</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/us/milo-yiannopoulos-berkeley/">Recent events</a> at the University of California, Berkeley reflect the enormous difficulties that campuses can face when trying to ensure freedom of speech while, at the same time, meeting their duty to ensure an inclusive learning environment and to protect everyone’s safety. Many, <a href="http://www.dailycal.org/2017/02/02/trump-condemns-uc-berkeley-protests-threatens-federal-funding-cut/">including President Donald Trump</a>, spoke out about these events, but with apparently little understanding of what actually occurred or all that the campus did to try and protect speech.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, Feb. 1, Milo Yiannopoulos, a controversial speaker <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-america-divided/milo-yiannopoulos/">who prides himself on being inflammatory</a>, was scheduled to speak at the University of California, Berkeley, at the invitation of the College Republicans student group. A <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/01/uc-berkeley-campus-protest-milo-yiannopoulos-breitbart/97378104/">demonstration of approximately 1,500 people</a> developed to protest his presence and to stand against what they considered to be “hate speech.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156095/original/image-20170208-17337-1n63s2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Masked protestors speak out against Yiannopoulos’ appearance on campus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/QvuQWh">pietropiupparco/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>A few hours before the scheduled talk, a group of protesters pulled down police barricades, hurled Molotov cocktails, smashed windows, and threw fireworks and rocks at police, resulting in US$100,000 of property damage. According to the university, the violent protesters were <a href="http://kfor.com/2017/02/02/uc-berkeley-blames-150-masked-agitators-for-violent-destructive-protest-on-campus/">“150 masked agitators”</a> who had come to campus to disturb an otherwise peaceful protest.</p>
<p>Perceiving a serious threat to public safety, campus officials called off Yiannopoulos’ talk, while also condemning the violence and reasserting their commitment to free speech principles. As university administrators and professors who teach and write about First Amendment law, we see what happened at Berkeley as enormously important in our current debate over free speech.</p>
<p>Did campus officials infringe Yiannopoulos’ freedom of speech and the rights of the College Republicans to hear his views? </p>
<p>The event has triggered intense debates about the scope and limits of free speech. However, to understand who did the right thing and who did the wrong thing, you must also understand a few basic <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">First Amendment</a> principles.</p>
<h2>Basic free speech principles</h2>
<p>First, by law campuses must allow all views and ideas to be expressed, no matter how offensive. Above all, the First Amendment means that the government cannot prevent or punish speech based on the viewpoint expressed. This also is a crucial aspect of academic freedom.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=709&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156100/original/image-20170208-17325-ljnrfy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Milo Yiannopoulos speaking at the LeWeb13 Conference in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/eDVBsC">LeWeb14/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Even the expression of hate is constitutionally protected; <a href="http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/doe.html">court cases</a> have addressed this very issue on college campuses in the past. Although hate speech unquestionably causes harms, it nonetheless is expression that is covered by the First Amendment. We therefore strongly disagree with <a href="https://ww2.kqed.org/forum/2017/01/25/students-push-for-uc-berkeley-officials-to-cancel-breitbarts-milo-yiannopoulos-event/">those who say</a> that campus officials at Berkeley could keep Yiannopoulos from speaking because of his hateful and offensive message. </p>
<p>Campus officials at Berkeley recognized that Yiannopoulos had a First Amendment right to speak. Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks <a href="http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/01/26/chancellor-statement-on-yiannopoulos/">rightly resisted demands</a>, including from Berkeley faculty, to ban Yiannopoulos’ appearance.</p>
<p>Second, campuses must do all they can to ensure that audience reactions against a speaker are not allowed to silence the speaker. Free speech can be undermined, not only by official censorship and punishment, but also by individuals who seek to disrupt or shut down others when they attempt to exercise their rights. If officials do not work to prevent or punish disruption then there will be a “heckler’s veto” of all unpopular or controversial speakers, and this is not consistent with free speech principles. Campus officials have a duty to protect the free speech rights of protesters, but they must also protect speakers and prevent heckling. Apparently, this, too, occurred at Berkeley. Staff members spent weeks planning extensive security arrangements, including bringing in dozens of police officers from nine other UC campuses.</p>
<p>Third, there may be situations where controlling the audience proves impossible and there is no choice but to prevent a speaker’s presence to ensure public safety. This should be a last resort taken only if there is no other way to prevent a serious imminent threat to public safety. This appears to be exactly what occurred at Berkeley, where the riotous demonstrators could not be controlled. In such cases, authorities should do all they can, after the fact, to identify and punish those who used violence and violated the law, and should assess how different security arrangements might be more effective in preventing future disruptions. Campus officials should also do what they can to reschedule the speaker for another time.</p>
<h2>Misguided criticism of Berkeley officials</h2>
<p>A number of commentators <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-le-milo-yiannopoulos-berkeley-free-speech-20170206-story.html">were outraged</a> that Yiannopoulos was not able to speak, and claimed that free speech was under attack at Berkeley. But the campus itself consistently reaffirmed his right to speak, resisted calls to cancel the event and arranged for extraordinary security at great expense. The vast majority of the demonstrators were also merely exercising their free speech rights. Thus, the campus efforts were consistent with free speech principles. If there is blame to be assigned it should focus on the small number of outsiders who were intent on using violent and unlawful means to disrupt the event.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, President Trump tweeted after the event that federal funds might be withheld from Berkeley unless it allowed freedom of speech. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"827112633224544256"}"></div></p>
<p>Putting aside that he lacks the legal authority to do this, Trump ignored the fact that freedom of speech never is absolute. Campuses can punish speech that constitutes true threats or harassment or incitement of illegal activity. Campuses also need to act to protect the safety and welfare of all on campus.</p>
<p>Campus officials at Berkeley faced an enormously difficult situation. They were not insensitive to speech and they did not deserve the disapproval of the president. The campus did not keep Yiannopoulos from speaking because of his views, but because public safety at the time necessitated it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72651/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>UC Berkeley had a duty to protect the free speech of right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and those protesting his appearance. But what are the limits of free speech when it comes to campus safety?Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the School of Law, University of California, IrvineHoward Gillman, Chancellor, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/524242016-03-04T11:17:45Z2016-03-04T11:17:45ZOrganizing a student protest? Have a look at 1970s Germany<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113785/original/image-20160303-9466-10224ix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">May 1968 students' protest in Berlin. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TU_Berlin_1968a.jpg">Holger.Ellgaard</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The protests over race and diversity that shook campuses across the U.S. in 2015 continue to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/education/edlife/student-demands-an-update.html?_r=0">reverberate.</a> </p>
<p>In January the president of Ithaca College <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/01/14/ithaca-college-president-resigns-after-protests-over-race-issues/">resigned</a>. In February Princeton University began public discussions of<a href="http://wilsonlegacy.princeton.edu/"> the controversial legacy</a> of its former president and U.S. President <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-black-middle-class-was-attacked-by-woodrow-wilsons-administration-52200">Woodrow Wilson</a>. And also in February, the University of Missouri <a href="http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/education/turmoil_at_mu/university-of-missouri-curators-vote-to-fire-melissa-click/article_4b0ae653-2d61-5f3f-9ede-a129d12f0fd1.html">fired</a> the professor who called for reporters to be removed from covering a campus protest. </p>
<p>Although some administrators deem such students’ demands as fair and justified, others accuse them of revisionist and wrong, <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Removing-Racist-Symbols/234862">claiming</a> “history cannot be comprehended if erased.”</p>
<p>As a German Studies scholar, I am observing the controversies on U.S. campuses attentively. I am reminded of the discussions that students initiated in Germany in the 1960s to overcome the past.</p>
<p>Indeed, looking back at the protest movement in Germany reveals parallels that help to understand the present. </p>
<h2>The German burden</h2>
<p>Probably no other country has struggled as hard to come to terms with its past as Germany. </p>
<p>The Nazis’ unimaginable crimes cost the lives of millions of people, many of whom died in ghettos or in concentration, labor and death camps. Most of these victims were Jewish. Others included ethnic and religious minorities, political activists, members of resistance groups and gays. </p>
<p>After the war, all visible signs of Nazi rule – such as swastikas and portraits of Hitler – were removed under orders from the Allied Powers of the U.S., United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union. </p>
<p>But that did not mean that racism had been uprooted in postwar German society. </p>
<p>It was students who sparked a public discussion on race and gender. It was they who initiated what ended up being a cathartic process of healing. In the process, however, there was resistance and violence on both sides. </p>
<p>The students’ targets were clear. They were protesting against universities’ failure to remove professors that were known racists and had served in the Nazi administration; against the authoritarian and paternalistic structures at universities; and in favor of equality among the sexes. </p>
<p>In doing so they were targeting the German government itself.</p>
<h2>First attempts to undo 12 years of Nazi propaganda</h2>
<p>After World War II, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/apr/24/exorcising-hitler-germany-frederick-taylor">denazification and reeducation programs</a> were designed to undo 12 years of Nazi propaganda. </p>
<p>They had limited success. </p>
<p>The Nazis had consolidated their power through centralization and massive organizations. The Nazi Party itself had more than <a href="http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=47&articleID=599">8 million members</a> or almost 10 percent of the population. The German Labor Front, a state-mandated union whose leaders supported the regime counted as many as 25 million members. </p>
<p>The sheer number of people who had been members of Nazi organizations made the goal of removing them from government and public offices impossible. Many were able to move into high positions in the West German government, and some of those even had the backing of the United States, who considered them efficient anticommunists. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=641&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113792/original/image-20160303-9490-jofb61.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=805&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hans Globke.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-F015051-0006,_Hans_Globke.jpg">Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F015051-0006 / Patzek, Renate</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>One of these was the director of the Federal Chancellery of West Germany, <a href="http://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/hans-globke.html">Hans Globke</a>, a jurist who had coauthored the Nuremberg Laws that revoked Jews’ citizenship in 1935.</p>
<p>Yes, the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/research/research-in-collections/search-the-collections/bibliography/nuremberg-trials">Nuremberg trials</a> of 1945-46 convicted – in the spotlight of the international media – 22 main Nazi officials, military officers and business leaders. And, yes, there were a number of trials to follow in the 1950s. But it took until the 1960s and the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/collections-highlights/auschwitz-ssalbum/frankfurt-trial">Auschwitz trials</a> for the larger public to be shaken out of its comforting illusion that an economic recovery could continue without addressing the traumatic experience of Nazi crimes and the involvement and passive support of significant segments of the population.</p>
<h2>New role models for students</h2>
<p>Student protests in West Germany were kickstarted by the decision of the center left Social Democratic Party to <a href="http://www.bpb.de/geschichte/deutsche-geschichte/geschichte-der-raf/49201/apo-und-studentenproteste">exclude its student union</a> from party membership in 1961. </p>
<p>The students saw themselves as legitimate political players. They began speaking up not just against the establishment’s decision to silence them but also the establishment’s past. </p>
<p>In their fight against the “lies of the fathers,” students turned to new intellectual role models, such as <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/adorno/">Theodor W. Adorno</a> and <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marcuse/">Herbert Marcuse </a>, leading figures of the Frankfurt School of <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/">Critical Theory</a> who had been in exile during the war. </p>
<p>But if these “fathers of the revolution” sparked debate, it was often women who took action.</p>
<h2>Into the streets</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/113794/original/image-20160303-9460-10mcans.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beate Klarsfeld in 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beate_Klarsfeld_(1970).jpg">Nationaal Archief</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The political activist <a href="http://www.klarsfeldfoundation.org/">Beate Klarsfeld</a>, for example, received major public attention when she slapped Kurt Georg Kiesinger, German chancellor from 1966-69. </p>
<p>Kiesinger had been a Nazi Party member and deputy director of the State Department’s foreign radio network. </p>
<p>It was unacceptable to students that a staunch opponent of free speech could be the highest dignitary of West Germany. </p>
<p>Kiesinger, however, struck back. He introduced an infamous “Emergency Law” in <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/68-movement-brought-lasting-changes-to-german-society/a-3257581">1968</a> that only intensified the protests against the government and its representatives. </p>
<p>The law was implemented in May 1968 and authorized the government to make wide-ranging decisions without confirmation or consent by the German Parliament. It gave the government power to strip citizens of constitutional rights such as the right of free speech in case of an armed conflict or a natural disaster. </p>
<p>Students attacked the law as undemocratic and took to the streets. Demonstrations became violent. The deadly shooting of <a href="http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=2391">Benno Ohnesorg</a> in 1967 (whose attacker <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/1968-revisited-the-truth-about-the-gunshot-that-changed-germany-a-627342.html">was revealed in 2012</a> as an undercover agent for the East German Stasi secret police) and of charismatic student leader <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-attack-on-rudi-dutschke-a-revolutionary-who-shaped-a-generation-a-546913.html">Rudi Dutschke</a> a year later, brought matters to <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/68-movement-brought-lasting-changes-to-german-society/a-3257581">a boiling point.</a></p>
<p>In the wake of this violence the student movement split. Most continued peaceful protests. But some, notably the <a href="http://www.socialhistoryportal.org/raf/">Red Army Faction</a> (RAF), turned to terrorism. It was their kidnapping and 1977 murder of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Martin_Schleyer">Hanns-Martin Schleyer,</a> the president of the Confederation of German Employers Association, that pushed the government into a state of emergency. </p>
<p>And once again the wartime past reared its head. </p>
<p>Until his kidnapping, the public had known little about Schleyer – one of the country’s most powerful business leaders. Now it was revealed that he had been an active Nazi party member, a Nazi Student Organization leader, and a Second Lieutenant in the infamous and murderous <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007400">Schutzstaffel or “SS.”</a> </p>
<h2>The legacy</h2>
<p>The RAF was undoubtedly a criminal organization without lasting impact on society as a whole. But the student protests changed the German mindset forever. </p>
<p>Students’ demands to have a role in governing universities were largely accepted. The government increased spending on education, changed curricula to prepare students better for the job market, and introduced Universities of Applied Sciences or “Fachhochschulen.” </p>
<p>More female high school graduates entered higher education. New nondiscrimination laws made it easier for women to pursue careers in higher education. In addition, universities lowered access barriers for students from low income families. </p>
<p>Students helped to democratize German society through instigating public debates on topics such as gender equality, wealth distribution, and the meaning of public leadership. </p>
<p>And if necessary, former protesters took matters into their hands and founded their own media outlets such as the left-leaning newspaper cooperation <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Tageszeitung">“taz”</a> in Berlin in 1978 – a publication that continues to be a thought leader today despite its relatively small circulation of 52,000 copies. </p>
<p>Other former protesters cofounded the Green Party, now a major player in Germany’s political landscape with an <a href="http://www.forschungsgruppe.de/Startseite/">average 10%</a> of the votes countrywide and currently in coalition governments in no less than eight of the sixteen German states. The Green Party’s most prominent member to this day is a former student leader from Frankfurt, <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Joschka-Fischer">Joschka Fischer</a>, who was the country’s Foreign Secretary from 1998-2005.</p>
<h2>2015-2016</h2>
<p>The echo of student protests in the 1960s and ‘70’s can still be heard to this day. </p>
<p>Yes, there are a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/27/pegida-germany-anti-immigrant-group-polarising-dresden">growing number</a> of nationalists that oppose Angela Merkel’s decision to open borders to <a href="https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/369/ressort/opinion/article/why-angela-merkel-is-right-about-refugees">1.1 million refugees</a> mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea. But at the same time, students in Germany have vociferously expressed their support for refugees by volunteering in aid projects, teaching the German language, helping with translations, offering legal advice, and accompanying migrants to medical <a href="http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article148042064/So-helfen-deutsche-Studenten-den-Fluechtlingen.html">doctors</a>. More and more universities are opening up their English course <a href="http://www.tum.de/en/studies/international-students/refugees/">offerings for refugees</a> and a new tuition-free <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/10/29/migrants-get-help-through-german-online-university/74472260/">university in Berlin</a> is targeted specifically at migrants. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3469535/I-ll-damned-duty-refugees-says-Merkel-emerges-nine-ten-Germans-want-limits-migrants-coming-country.html">Merkel’s politics</a>, I believe, can be seen as a result of lessons learned by German history. The official response to political oppression and racism, in other words, must be civility and responsibility. </p>
<p>History, much like in the U.S., should adapt to the values of the present, not the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christoph Zeller 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>Probably no other country has struggled as hard to come to terms with its past as Germany. Here’s what students contributed to that struggle.Christoph Zeller, Associate Professor of German and European Studies and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed 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/506952015-11-16T11:10:21Z2015-11-16T11:10:21ZWhy have the demands of black students changed so little since the 1960s?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101946/original/image-20151115-10438-ainmxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's new about black students' demands?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/snakegirlproductions/17303015461/in/photolist-sn1tEM-sn3TUZ-9ujE3d-Vtpp-biTh9X-bjrq7a-bjrwqB-8ZsRs9-bjrxVv-EzhDq-dJvabV-biTg22-bjrwye-6t2jz-pdE9qN-wT5iJX-79apGu-nbsZMA-biTijK-xQAihT-6v9hek-nbyyPf-rD3nJX-bjrxba-bjrxs6-7YjEQu-bDRPuS-9chSab-5rdMaE-8xcPmQ-apeSDm-9NJfwE-biTeYn-9NDgMs-8x9MR4-9G5Ks2-8x9Mzi-8xcNUy-biTbdF-biTbZH-8xcNPb-biT966-8xcP5U-9TW2tn-7z2qHX-bjrwUt-bjryvn-bjrxkD-bjsAhz-nbyq5u">Beverly Yuen Thompson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The student protests at the University of Missouri and on other campuses across the country have brought greater attention to the educational plight of black students. </p>
<p>The protests have exposed how experiences of black students in predominantly white campus environments are cloaked in isolation, invisibility and downright disregard for their rights.</p>
<p>Sadly, campus racism is not new, and neither are the demands of black student activists.</p>
<p>In my role as an associate professor of higher education and student affairs at Indiana University’s School of Education, I study black student experiences in college. </p>
<p>My book, <a href="https://sty.presswarehouse.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=148350">Culture Centers in Higher Education</a>, was the first to focus on the establishment of campus culture centers. These centers emerged as a result of the demands from activists during the student movements of the late 1960s to provide safe and welcoming spaces for students of color on campuses.</p>
<p>Over the past week, I have thought about the present context of black student protests in relation to the protests of their 1960s counterparts. And one thing is clear: the current student demands closely resemble those made by students in the 1960s. </p>
<h2>Pattern of demands</h2>
<p>Let’s look at students’ demands in the ‘60’s and '70’s to understand their similarity to today’s demands. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101959/original/image-20151115-10420-1ryse5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What did student demands look like in the 60s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/38971527@N04/5924946220/in/photolist-a2yU6b-a2yVeG-dS9vhT-fuPHRP-39mwr9-oT5RSF-dUMvPv-iyvDJK-o3uB2A-a2yViS-5g7api-jmjHm2-5THR7Q-o5eHsK-o5qKZY-a2w2F8-iyvq4w-o7j9Pt-o5x1BK-o5qDRf-dUMvtH-dUMvjX-dUMwDc-dUMvxc-dUMvoT-dUT6R5-dUTbh5-dUMw7i-dUMvAZ-o5eJKz-o5qu5y-o5qsqw-nN3zjA-7xJi3Y-fv4tSy-nN3vPE-jmmW3Q-jmmjUx-jmjEnB-dS9BDB-fv4tVL-dS9BEz-fuPbsM-vQenu3-fv4sXq-hU3wYU-dS9BEP-dSfnhS-5T2gq5-2vA6rS">Village Square</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Student demands typically included an increase in the number of faculty, greater recruitment and scholarships for black students, more courses on black history and black experiences in the curriculum, and setting up of a center to serve as a place of refuge from an otherwise racially hostile campus environment. </p>
<p>These early <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_college_student_development/v047/47.6patton.html">demand letters</a> dating back to the late '60’s often followed a similar structure, which included a preamble stating the overarching issue, followed by a list of demands. </p>
<p>For example, a November 1968 letter of <a href="http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/reedhisttxt&CISOPTR=17282&REC=9%22%22">student demands at Reed College</a> in Oregon started with the following preamble:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Reed is actively recruiting black students. They bring us here, force us to study the culture of our oppressors (Europe and America), and then neglect our own contributions to civilization. Black people are different. We come from a culture (history and language) and must face a different environment than white people after graduation. Reed does not answer this need.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They go on in this letter to ask for a black studies program. The Black Student Union asked to select the faculty who would teach in the program and wanted control over the curriculum until black faculty were hired to lead it. </p>
<p>Similar demand letters were drafted at other universities. </p>
<p>In May of 1968, the <a href="http://www.northeastern.edu/aai/about/history/">the Afro-American Association at Northeastern University</a>, based in Boston, demanded 50 scholarships for black students as well as curriculum changes to include an Afro-American literature course, an African language course and other cultural courses. They later expanded this initial set of demands to include a black studies program and the establishment of an African-American institute. </p>
<p>Two years later – on October 3 1970 – students at the University of Florida raised similar issues.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This university operates in such a manner as to unjustly exclude black students and professors, and to underemploy black personnel – and damn little is being done to correct the situation. On the contrary, many influential persons are operating under the illusion that progress has been made. To do so is to compare the present to the past without realizing that neither extends a modicum of justice to more than a handful of blacks. There have been many meetings and few results.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They continued with such demands as the recruitment and admission of more black students, establishment of a department of minority affairs and hiring more black faculty.</p>
<h2>Student demands in the present</h2>
<p>Fast-forward nearly 50 years and the demands from black student activists at the <a href="http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/mizzou-football/heres-list-demands-mizzous-protesting-athletes-students/">University of Missouri</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/13/minority-students-at-yale-give-list-of-demands-to-university-president/">Yale University</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/invisiblehawks">University of Kansas</a>, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KM__SDc4-QaQKXyl_DYUlDKRjN0DgLN0xVln986LunI/mobilebasic?pli=1">Emory University</a>, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/UC-Berkeley-black-students-demand-fixes-to-6139786.php">UC Berkeley</a> and other schools across the country look eerily similar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/101947/original/image-20151115-10412-1lr04yw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Today’s students are asking for many of the same things as the students in the ‘60’s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/codnewsroom/16467302850/in/photolist-r6aeqE-r69jxd-rnHEPa-ehCYFS-biT9tX-9NvF6h-iMeym-8j956y-8yQtot-biTaTz-j4f2XU-biTgPD-EzhCt-d4KaS5-bjrwNn-8x8whf-biThcF-zpW98K-arAn5P-8LodQi-AnSRD-9RzVV-8xdfcw-qqWBDz-9vkBZv-ehCYAj-ehCYzo-ehCYuo-ehxda4-ehCYyG-ehCYBL-ehxd6r-ehCYmh-ehxd5D-ehxdkX-88UpRE-ehCYDd-ehCYwf-7BTSgR-pw1ZMK-biTdGx-bjrxfH-hwerUr-ehCYEU-ehxdeg-ehxdbM-ehCYzm-ehCYD5-ehxd8e-ehxdg2">COD Newsroom</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p><a href="http://www.greensboro.com/news/schools/black-guilford-college-students-demand-better-treatment/article_6f7e3b73-c16f-5580-af3c-9fe8d63d55f9.html">Students</a> <a href="http://claremontindependent.com/cmc-students-feel-marginalized-demand-resources-and-resignations/">still want</a> a <a href="http://wtvr.com/2015/11/12/vcu-activists-march-into-presidents-building-demand-changes/">more inclusive</a> curriculum that reflects their experiences, an increase in black faculty, efforts to recruit and retain black students and establishment of a safe space on campus, such as a black culture center.</p>
<p>University administrators in the 1960s may have been unprepared for the influx of black students to their campuses, but it appears that even 50 years later, they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/13/purdue-pres-mitch-daniels-calls-school-proud-contrast-to-missouri-and-yale-despite-own-history-of-unrest/">remain</a> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/31/living/university-louisville-racist-staff-party-feat/">underprepared</a> and uninformed. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, students wanted more black people in faculty and leadership roles. Today, black faculty and administrators do exist but make up only a minuscule fraction of the entire faculty nationwide. </p>
<p>So, for instance, in 2013 only 6% of faculty were black, and in 2011 only 6% of college presidents were black. The fact is that an overwhelming <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Racial-Disparities-in-Higher/234129/">majority</a> of faculty and institutional leaders are white (80% and 90%, respectively). </p>
<p>Following their demands, many black students in the 1960s got <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.02/abc.160/abstract">culture centers</a>. However, <a href="http://diverseeducation.com/article/1952/">these</a> culture centers are <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/university_of_akron_layoffs_include_all_employees_in_multicultural_center_and_ua_press.html">typically deprioritized</a> and viewed as promoting separatism. </p>
<p>These days, institutions are <a href="http://cnycentral.com/news/local/ithaca-college-appoints-diversity-officer">appointing</a> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mizzou-diversity-officer_56422821e4b0411d3072a9e9">senior diversity officers</a> who serve as top campus administrators. Their <a href="http://www.lex18.com/story/7912120/college-appoints-its-first-chief-diversity-officer">role</a> is to conduct strategic planning and implementation of the large-scale diversity initiatives on campus. </p>
<p>Often, their division or department encompasses the work of culture centers. As a result, these senior-level administrators and their culture center counterparts are expected to “do diversity” while other campus entities are relinquished from the same responsibilities. </p>
<p>In addition, the strategic plans designed to foster diversity can often contribute to the negative racial climate on campus by relying on language that positions people of <a href="http://eaq.sagepub.com/content/43/5/586.short">color as outsiders</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, students of color feel excluded despite efforts to promote inclusivity. </p>
<p>Institutional responses to student protests of the past, in other words, have not resulted in steady progression. At best, it is a case of three steps forward and <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/journal_of_higher_education/v080/80.4.harper.pdf">two steps backward</a>.</p>
<h2>Dealing with racial realities</h2>
<p>The point is that post-secondary institutions are simply unwilling, it seems, to engage in substantive change for racial progress. </p>
<p>The fact that demands of black student activists, both past and present, remain similar illustrates this reluctance. Black students <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2015/11/12/missouri-protests-embolden-student-leaders-on-other-campuses">continue</a> to be disenfranchised, which creates the ideal ground for <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/education/7/71/496143/racism-lingering-problem-among-collegiate-millennials">more protests</a> to emerge. </p>
<p>Perhaps black student activists should be demanding something different. I am concerned that when institutions (attempt to) meet the commonly documented demands, it could make black students feel (even if momentarily) a false sense of vindication. </p>
<p>The reality is that little systemic change will take place as long as institutional leaders, faculty, curriculum and culture remain predominantly white. </p>
<p>Racism <a href="http://uex.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/01/0042085915602542.refs">flows throughout</a> post-secondary institutions in ordinary, predictable and taken-for-granted ways. For every effort made to meet student demands, several more incidents will create a negative campus racial climate. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean that the protests should stop.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50695/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lori Patton Davis 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>Here’s what black student activists were asking for 50 years ago. So, what changed?Lori Patton Davis, Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.