Ahmadinejad visits Columbia, 2007 During my first semester at college, I learned to love Columbia for the curiosity, diversity, expressiveness and eloquence of its student body. This is a community bursting with opinions, energy, advocacy and activism, and I was excited at the prospect of being surrounded by intensely articulate, rabidly passionate peers who were working to promote change they thought was important. At the close of the semester...
...el that this generation of college students is as politically engaged as your generation was? Is it as effectively engaged, and how does it need to grow? In what ways has your generation developed its approach to advocacy and activism, and do you expect the current youth to follow a similar trajectory as they age? MR: Young people often tell me that nothing anyone does can make a difference. So why bother educating oneself on social issues or en...
Rampant apathy and cynicism. Growing civic disengagement. Hedonistic individualism. These accusations have often been leveled at our generation of students. The lack of traditional engagement by the 18-24-year-old cohort has been seen as the end of student activism. But these criticisms are blind to the diversity and subtle power of the student action happening today. Unlike activism during the Vietnam War, there is no unifying cry, no single me...
...ts. Teachers across the country, drawing inspiration from their Chicago counterparts, are communicating directly amongst themselves about strategies to oppose corporate education reform. The growing wave of radical grassroots activism since Occupy Wall Street has demonstrated the potential of students, teachers, and parents as political agents. Perhaps equally as salient an issue for ordinary Americans as neoliberal K-12 reforms, however, is the...
photo from Wikimedia Commons “On October 17, 2012 at 9:00am a Tabletop Exercise was conducted by Columbia University’s Emergency Management Operations Team in room 555 of Lerner Hall located on the Morningside Campus. The exercise provided an open, no-fault environment where participants collectively evaluated emergency protocol plans and the coordination of campus Emergency Management Operations Team personnel in the event of a student-led pr...
...s and resources. It’s cyclical.” According to Bales, it is within the scope of our capabilities as individuals to advance these goals. So far, the anti-slavery movement has not used social media effectively. Of course, online activism should be approached with caveats. As Malcolm Gladwell rightly argued in a recent New Yorker article on activism, social change cannot happen without a sustained commitment. Gladwell points out that “the Facebook pa...
...ncial holdings from corporations that profit from fossil fuels. Students in the divestment movement, allied with groups such as Bill McKibben’s 350.org, believe that they are leading the charge in a new phase of environmental activism. Orange may seem a strange color to symbolize a movement of climate activists, as we tend to paint these issues in a different hue. The color green, of course, is practically synonymous with the environment and envi...
...ian man killed by police officers after he discovered them using drugs. Support for his cause–that of fighting back in the face of government corruption–has widely been cited as the spark that helped ignite future activism. Indeed, Said himself posted footage of his killer’s illegal activities on his blog shortly before his death. While pro-government supporters may garner support on occasion on the streets of Egypt, the larger,...
...d as a result of the legislative process as opposed to the judicial process—that directly elected officials should take down don’t ask, don’t tell” so that it is the change comes about by popular action, and not just judicial activism. Obama promised in his campaign, and has promised since then, that under his administration the outdated policy would come to an end. Finally DADT was declared unconstitutional in one fell swoop, and Obama is puttin...
...eatshop labor, has created a campaign that creates factories in African nations and donates large sums to support HIV/AIDS research in the Third World. Buying as Protest But do we buy into ethical consumption as a new form of activism to excuse ourselves from more proactive forms of protest, or is this actually a new, and perhaps more effective, form of making our voices heard? While I have done my share (probably a couple of people’s shares) of...
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