Here's What Universities Always Get Wrong about Student Protests

[Nevilledog]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/repression-draws-attention-to-campus-protests-like-those-over-the-conflict/

No paywall link
https://archive.li/GEfn1

As protests of the war in Gaza have erupted on university campuses over the past few weeks, we see once again the idealism, dedication and energy that young people bring to the causes they care about. Although there is nothing new about student activism, every time it appears on campuses with a fresh generation, it brings an exhilarating vibrancy. In the 1950s students protested against the rising tide of McCarthyism and its threats to free expression. In the 1960s students brought civil rights, the women’s movement, and the anti–Vietnam War movement to campuses. The 1980s witnessed a wave of anti-apartheid protests, including the spread of “shantytowns” as a tactic, and in the 1990s students protested their universities’ affiliations with clothing retailers, like Nike, that employed sweatshop labor in their supply chains. More recently, campuses have been awash with activism related to fighting climate change and supporting Black Lives Matter.

It makes sense that campuses seethe with protest. Universities and colleges give students a “liberal” education focused on critical thinking, broadening their perspectives and emphasizing the importance of ideas in our lives. And as research on activism has demonstrated, young people simply have more time, energy and flexibility to dedicate to activism, especially when compared to their slightly older, full-time employed peers. Campuses are designed for the discussion of ideas and include places, like open plazas, where students can gather for extracurricular activities. And for protest. Campuses are laboratories for innovative thinking and experimentation with new perspectives. They ostensibly promote free expression. Naturally students are often on the cutting edge of social movements.

And yet every generation of administrators fumbles in dealing with student activists. Despite history abounding with what past administrations did to quell the impact of activism on campus and the consequences—positive and negative—every time there is a new wave of activism, it’s as if administrations are facing protests for the first time. Student protestors, in contrast, seem to get more organized, more savvy and better prepared for what administrations throw at them with each successive generation.

There are good reasons why. Despite each new student cohort being quite young and inexperienced, networks of activists exist that link ideologically aligned students across campuses. Activists have refined campus protest tactics over time, learning from what worked in the past and creating plans that can be easily transported across time and location. It’s not coincidental that the tent cities of the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s look similar in form and function to the encampments springing up recently. Activism from the past gets stored in collective memory, often through written records and routinized in social movement organizations and passed to the next generation.

*snip*

[maxsolomon]

1. The relevant snips:

this is what administrators often get wrong about student protests. They incorrectly assume that student protestors are passionate but disorganized and that the protests erupt like mobs reacting to events going on around them. With this mindset it is easy to underestimate the students’ preparedness, their resolve and ability to respond to administrative attempts to break up protests. Administrators are often overconfident in their ability to enforce rules about what counts as legitimate protest and fail to see how attempts to police protest only further mobilize students. They also fail to comprehend how willing police are to instigate violence, leading to injuries. This miscalculated attempt to repress protests usually adds fuel to the fire, partly because it enrages students who weren’t previously involved in the protest and who see policing as an injustice and violation of their understanding of what kinds of free expression are permitted and even encouraged. Repression may escalate otherwise nonviolent protests into violent interactions, usually at the hands of the very police supposedly sent in to maintain peace.

But the other reason it further escalates protests is because it brings more attention to them. Attention is activist fuel. The more attention that a protest gets, the easier it is to get other people to participate and the greater pressure they can exert on their targets—the very administration that is trying to stop them. As social movement scholars like myself have found in numerous studies, attention is the resource that gives activists their leverage in getting what they want.

[intheflow]

2. Came here to post this EXACT snippet.

When I suggested in a thread a few days back that it's doubtful Columbia would have devolved into the building takeover and violence if the initial peaceful protest in mid-April wasn't disbanded by police in riot gear. For making this same point, I was called antisemitic, told this line of thought had "The cops and admin made us destroy things" energy. I now believe I have someone stalking me and alerting on my posts as I've been here since 2004 and only had 2 posts hidden until I started presenting neutral observations like this that neither condemn nor condone the protesters but just make note of human nature and putting the protests in historical context. In the last two weeks, I've had three posts removed, which, again, after 20 years on this site, it's so disturbing to me that people who claim to be liberal are suddenly all about bringing in the cops to quell dissent, and all about shutting up free speech here on DU. It's like Backwards Land, and it's going to drive me away from this site, my home away from home for two decades.

[maxsolomon]

3. All these Universities are under immense pressure from moneyed donors.

And the public whipping the 3 Ivy-League presidents got in Congress put the zap on most of their Administrator's heads.

I get alerted on fairly often (sometimes a judge will let me know). I don't get hidden much. Take it as a badge of honor. DU isn't appreciated nuanced takes on I/P lately.