Activism and the College Campus

Currently, we stand at a political crossroads. Our country is at war in what has now become one of the most controversial and expensive undertakings in recent history. We have an election in November that could very well sway the fate of the nation for the next decade; one candidate possibly the first ever African American President of the United states with a political agenda promising “change,” the other a decorated war vet and “common sense conservative” seeking to maintain American values as well as our presence in Iraq. Gay rights, abortion, gun control, and the energy crisis continue to define party lines. And our economy, for lack of a better phrase, is in the shitter. So why are college campuses, which  once acted as hotbeds for political protest and birthplaces for new ideas, enabling the voice of America’s youth, so eerily quiet? Why are on-campus demonstrations so rare? Why is the vision of students demanding to be heard from atop police cars and tear gas-filled helicopters flying over lecture halls suddenly so impossible to picture? Are student-launched movements a thing of the past? Have college campuses somehow lost their political edge, or has student activism just evolved beyond picket signs and sit-ins as a means of taking action?


Film Studies professor Russell Merritt, PhD began his career at the University of Wisconsin, Madison during the tumultuous 1960s and now teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Both schools are known for their student activism in previous years, but Merritt has noticed a decline in on-campus demonstrations and protest during his time at Berkeley. While on-campus student groups do indeed exist, much of any public protest usually comes from outside parties. “Currently, tree sitters are protesting Cal’s decision to cut down several oak trees in order to modernize the athletic facilities,” Merritt says. “But this seems more the work of street people than university students: protest as semi-comic sideshow.” Merritt also notes that campus anti-war protests are minimal, which is a far cry from the anti- Vietnam war movement the Berkeley campus experienced in the mid-1960s. “What anti-war protests I have seen have been small. We actually got bigger rallies going in Oakland than I saw in Berkeley,” Merritt says. However, lack of interest in the war is not, in Merritt’s opinion, the reason behind the lack of student outcry. “My sense among today’s students is that they are as antiwar as ever, but have lost confidence in public protest as an effective persuader,” says Merritt. “But then they have never seen a successful antiestablishment movement at work.”

Nearly all American universities do host a variety of student political or issue-based groups today, even if the means of creating a voice on campus may have changed. UC Irvine student Aaron Elias is a member of Anteaters for Israel, an on-campus pro-Israel, pro-Zionist group mainly composed of Jewish students. “Our purpose is education. We hope to teach and inform the campus at large about Israel,” explains Elias. “With all the anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic propaganda misleading people these days, we also hope to inform students about the truth of the Middle East conflict, as well as all the benefits the world has enjoyed directly related to Israel’s continued existence.”

CALPIRG is another student-run organization that seeks to spread awareness on campus. According to USC CALPIRG Chapter Chair Nelson Chen, “CALPIRG is a nonprofit, nonpartisan student group on campus dedicated to standing up for the public interest: increasing the youth vote, fighting poverty around LA, working for cheaper textbooks and making [each chapter’s respective school] a greener campus.” The organization currently has nine campus chapters in California and 15 nation-wide.


Both Elias and Chen maintain that college campuses are not politically apathetic by any means, but concede that pushing the limits in student activism is not as prevalent these days. “College campuses are some of the most politically active hotspots you’ll come across, of course,” Elias says. “All year
round, you’ll see flyers, booths, posters, and even speakers talking about Darfur, the Armenian genocide, Islam-fascism, Sudan, cruelty to animals, students for Obama, students against Obama. So there’s no shortage of politics on the campus, but that’s as far as the students who belong to a campus group go.”

“I think college campuses are inherently very politically charged places, but it’s just a question of where that energy is directed or focused,” says Chen. However, Chen believes “people buy into this self-fulfilling prophecy that one vote doesn’t matter or one signature means nothing, but if you take the time and effort to have your voice and opinion heard, when stacked up with even a hundred other like-minded individuals, you have a great vehicle for change.”

If college students are indeed just as politically minded as ever even if they are not as expressive in their views, then does this mean they are making sure to vote? According to Alexandra Acker, National Executive Director of Young Democrats of America (YDA), the youth vote is on the rise. “In 2004 we saw the highest increase in young voter turnout since the voting age was lowered [to 18 years of age] in 1972 and that momentum has really stayed around,” Acker claims.


Stephanie Young, Media Relations Associate for Rock the Vote, an organization aimed at encouraging young people to vote and get involved in the political process, explains, “There are 45 million young eligible voters. The organization is currently hoping to meet a goal of registering an addional two million young voters this election season. “I think we can definitely do that but we want them to step up and claim their voice in this political process and change the way that politics are done,” Young says. Both YDA and Rock the Vote make it a point to directly connect with students through methods college kids can relate to and therefore respond to. YDA has erected local on-campus student-run groups in order to spread their message. “About 40% of our members and local chapters are college based,” Acker says. “We talk to young people at their homes and hangouts…so on a college campus its everything from chalking, flyering, and displaying and holding meetings. Our whole philosophy is that peer to peer contact is what really gets young people involved in politics.”

Rock the Vote uses popular media and entertainment to attract college students and spread political awareness. “We reach out to 18-29-year-olds with music and pop culture and new technologies to engage them and to interest them basically to register to vote,” Young says. The bottom line being that college students respond to a variety of tactics that don’t necessarily include the more aggressive oncampus protest.

Anteaters for Israel and CALPIRG also use less forceful, friendlier methods to spread their message on campus. “Sometimes we put up a booth on the main campus road, decked out in Israeli flags, shirts, posters, etc. We also host events pertaining to Israel as well; earlier this year we invited the Consul General of Israel, Mr. Jacob Dyan, to come and speak at our campus about the conflict surrounding Israel,” Elias says. He explains that protests and demonstrations are actually tactics the group steers away from. “To my knowledge, AFI has not yet held what you would call a ‘protest’ or ‘demonstration,’” he says. “Our doctrine is to come across as a peaceful group because that’s what Israel is; a relatively peaceful island amidst a sea of violence in the Mid-East.”


USC’s CALPIRG goes so far as to gift students with swag items like canvas bags and compact fluorescent light bulbs to spread environmental awareness. Other times the group creates “cool visuals” on campus such as “a kiddie pool filled with toy cars in them to promote carpooling, or a giant inflatable earth on fire,” says Chen. The group also holds public speaker events which Chen asserts are “always big draws.” Like Anteaters, student demonstrations and public protests are not how CALPIRG chooses to create a voice on campus. “We try to go the constructive route when getting things done, so as to not burn any bridges or step on any toes,” Chen says. “Some would call this too moderate or conformist, we call it the way we’ve successfully gotten results on campuses for 30 plus years.”


“It’s a different type of activism from the ‘60s,” Acker says. One very important difference is that today, college students have access to a very important message spreading tool: the internet. “There is a lot of online activism, blogging and information sharing that didn’t happen in the ‘60s,” Acker explains. “So I think it’s hard to make a parallel… and certainly people from our parents’ generation are critical of young people today because they aren’t doing traditional types of organizing. They just don’t understand that it’s a new day, it’s a new era and that young people are involved in their own way; they
are putting their own stamp on political activism.”

Rock the Vote feels the organization’s online presence is responsible for much of its success. “Our outreach has turned from more hands-on to the internet almost totally and completely,” Young says. “That’s where young people are. We are going to their world and speaking to them and that’s why they feel like they are part of the election.” Rock the Vote has also tapped into the popular college social networking site Facebook to reach out to students. Young claims the cyber interaction that takes place between students and political causes can be just as successful in spreading awareness as signing a petition or participating in an oncampus organized event. “There is definitely a new community. You can go on Facebook and write a note about how you feel about something and that can be your own little protest online. You’re bringing up an issue that is important to you and everyone can comment. The face of protest has changed,” Young claims.

Chen echoes Young’s praise of online outreach and sites like Facebook, calling it “a godsend for community organizing.” Chen says his chapter is currently looking to relaunch their website in order to include an up-to-date blog about what CALPIRG is currently working on along with an online donation form so you can “pledge” and support USC CALPIRG online.

Barack Obama’s Facebook page currently lists a total of 1,344,894 “supporters” and includes wall
posts from students discussing abortion rights, religion and other hot topics of the election. McCain’s page lists a total of 205,824 “supporters” and also includes wall posts from students discussing the upcoming election and how Obama stands as McCain’s opponent.


Mobile phone text messaging is another great tool today’s student activists and organizations enjoy that wasn’t around 40 years ago. What once involved phone trees, flyering and bullhorns is now as easy as the simple click of a button. This year, for example, Rock the Vote plans on using text messaging to remind their newly registered voters to make it out to the polls on election day. We may not be able to see and hear student political involvement as clearly, but online and mobile activism is a reminder that student activism and awareness may simply be evolving to meet the needs of today’s college student and isn’t necessarily a sign of widespread apathy amongst today’s youth.

In fact this November’s election could be monumental in terms of student involvement and voter
turnout. “We saw every record shattered during the primary season with 6.5 million young people
turning out to vote,” says Acker. “We kind of have a perfect storm election year in that we had this movement already building. I think it’s going to create record turnout in this election cycle.”

Young agrees, “I think that this election season is something new. I really feel like being involved and politically aware has become trendy. It’s popular and cool to know what’s going on… I think college students are jumping right back on the bandwagon.”

By Jillian Gordon