Images of picket signs, hunger strikes and mass marches — emblems of the ’60s, the “Golden Age of Protest” — hold a dear place in the hearts of many aspiring student activists. College students are pegged with the responsibility of questioning such intangible concepts as the Institution, the System or the Administration, all while questioning whether these things exist at all. We are not our parents; perhaps the hour for angry activism has passed. It’s time that we rethink what protest and reform mean to us.
The students at NYU who are actively changing the university are doing it in a way that isn’t always visible. The founding of the Sustainability Task Force and the environmental studies program in the College of Arts and Science are two examples of goals that students took on and saw through to fruition. The Sustainability Task Force unites professors, administrators, staff, students and outside experts in order to execute positive, campus-wide environmental change. Now NYU has composting in all dining halls and is altering its facilities to be more energy efficient. The Killer Coke campaign was successful because it worked with the University Senate. These achievements were won by working through NYU.
There is room for NYU students to shape the structure of this university, but dialogue is key. By working with administrators and studying the issues that are important to them, individuals and groups can affect change. A powerful message must be coupled with an appropriate method; reach out to students in one way and administrators in another. The most effective forms of protest need not be loud or hostile, nor should they be coached in terms that divide the speaker from his or her intended listener.
Groups who care deeply about something should use their fervor to extensively study the details and history of a problem. Then they should make their case to the proper persons within the NYU community or administration. This is neither naïve nor far-fetched; instead, it reflects the belief that if old-school activism is to be justified, it should only be after students explore all options and exhaust all avenues short of that. Having failed to realize change through reason — well-conceived and argued with an open mind — they can rightly consider the sort of protest that aims to enact change by way of negative publicity.
It is vital that students don’t fall into an outdated image of what the student activist ought to be. There is no easy way to change the Institution, whatever that means. But we can change the way we go about doing it.
Washington Square News > Opinion > Columnists
Time to rethink how we reform
Published: Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Updated: Tuesday, September 30, 2008
In my reading of this editorial, WSN isn't saying that all change should come from the top down, and they certainly aren't saying that change isn't needed at NYU. They're just suggesting ways that these activist groups can be even more effective.