Schooling the Activist

An Activist’s Year in Review
Last week, reporter Monica Dodge wrote the Crimson’s update on student activism in 2010-2011. Her article, “The Evolution of Activism,” argued that students have now put “classes before causes” and more frequently rely on internet messaging instead of inter-personal organizing; student activists at Harvard “are less eager to leave behind their laptops and pick up picket signs” than in the past.
Unfortunately, Dodge’s article ignores a great deal of effective and impressive student activism which has taken place on campus this year and, in doing so, perpetuates a myth of student apathy.
Student activism in the 2010-2011 school year may not have been as impressive as the 1969 occupation of University Hall to protest ROTC or the 2001 Living Wage Campaign, which occupied Massachusetts Hall to demand a living wage for Harvard’s workers. However, this year’s many examples of well-organized and effective student activism certainly deserve recognition.
Dodge notes one impressive feat of student activism on campus this year: the AmeriCorps rally that drew hundreds of students to the Institute of Politics while U.S. Representative Eric Cantor spoke inside. In addition to protesting in support of their own potential post-graduation jobs, many Harvard students showed up at the IOP to protest cuts to Planned Parenthood, global health funding, and other social programs.
But contrary to Dodge’s implication, not all student activism this year “followed the rules.” For example, the Global Health and AIDS Coalition, requesting promised funding for global health, disrupted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s speech at the IOP earlier this year—and also interrupted President Obama himself three times, twice in October and once in November.
Students have also organized for causes closer to home. In September, hundreds of students organized with faculty, alumni, and staff in a coordinated demonstration against the University’s acceptance of a scholarship fund in the name of Marty Peretz, a former Social Studies Head Tutor with a record of racist remarks; class of 2013 Social Studies concentrators also staged a walkout of Social Studies 10 in protest. In March, students rallied in Harvard Square, asking that the United States grant a visa so that Afghan activist Malalai Joya could speak at Harvard—and the visa was subsequently granted. And in April, students gathered in a counter-protest against a “Social Transformation Conference” sponsored by the Harvard Extension Service and Leadership Society. The conference featured speakers advocating a “faith-based social transformation” of alleged social sins such as abortion, homosexuality, and Islam.
Other groups, too, have protested problematic policies upheld by the Harvard administration. The Harvard College Queer Students and Allies staged a rally on the Science Center Lawn in November, asking for more space for the Queer Resource Center (“having meetings in the QRC is like going back into the closet!”) and a university-funded LGBTQ staff person—demands that were met later in the year after a recommendation by the BGLTQ Working Group.
With only a day’s notice, the QSA, the Trans Task Force, and student allies organized a protest outside Loeb House when President Drew Faust signed a document there recognizing Naval ROTC on campus; activists say the program still excludes transgender and intersex students from participation. Environmental activists involved in the Vegetarian Society’s Cage-Free Eggs campaign defied the wishes of the Harvard University Hospitality and Dining Services and gained over 1000 signatures by travelling door-to-door in undergraduate dorms, and also met with members of the administration.
Activists in the Student Labor Action Movement launched a “Sustainable Food, Sustainable Jobs” campaign in  support of the dining hall workers’ contract negotiations, turning out students for two huge rallies in the Yard, one in February and one in May. And countless more students and student groups have engaged other students and the administration to call attention to abuses happening on campus and in the world.
What made the past year different from 1969 or 2001? For one, this year’s largest rally, while lively and well-attended, certainly did not represent any paradigm-shifting activism: it was a “Surprise Absurdity Protest” that drew hundreds of students of all religions and political affiliations to Harvard Hillel in a counter-protest to the homophobic and anti-Semitic Westboro Baptist Church. And to be sure, protests this year by activist groups have more often featured dozens of students instead of hundreds and have rarely escalated to civil disobedience.
Perhaps this is because the Harvard administration has openly declared its antagonism towards student activism. Administrative Board secretary John Ellison told the Crimson last year that the Ad Board would “go after” students who were involved in “illegal protesting”—like members of Harvard Students for a Just and Stable Future who participated in sleepouts on the Boston Common to push the Massachusetts State Legislature to introduce a 100% clean energy bill. (This year, Harvard SJSF, discouraged by administrators’ threats, simply lobbied at the Massachusetts statehouse, employing an effective but decidedly non-confrontational tactic.)
Certainly, some student organizing this year involved “working within the system” to discuss demands with the administration. For example, the newly formed group Harvard College Students for Safe Space has worked with the UC to push for social space alternatives to final clubs, after hosting dialogues with students about the role of final clubs at Harvard. The Student Labor Action Movement has also met with university officials to pressure the Harvard Management Company to stop investing in HEI Hotels and Resorts.
But are students working within the system more now than in the past? Change.org petitions—meant to appeal to authority—can be a whole lot easier to organize than large-scale rallies involving protest permits and the threat of police Tasers. More likely, though, these students have not yet turned out with picket signs and bullhorns because, as in the 1960s, they are following the time-honored tradition of “escalation”—they make demands straight to the administration first, and only resort to rallies and protests when those demands are overlooked or disregarded.
For example, the 2009 “Say Yes to Drugs” campaign, led by the Harvard Global Health and AIDS Coalition, involved gathering over 2000 signatures on a petition, publicizing through t-shirts and posters, questioning President Drew Faust during speeches, meeting with administrators, and rallying outside of Massachusetts Hall; only after months of work did activists finally convince Harvard to increase the access of poor countries to new medical treatments.
Recently, the University Council has made accomplishing change “within the system” easier by endorsing student group proposals (like a resolution condemning a fund in the name of Marty Peretz), although recently established guidelines may make that more difficult. In addition, the newly proposed Harvard University Forum for Change, if approved by President Faust, will allow students and faculty to engage more with the administration.
But long-time labor activist and HKS Professor Marshall Ganz, quoted in Dodge’s article, notes that activists need “an appreciation for the importance of conflict, not violence, but contention, especially within a democratic system” to effect positive social change. Luckily, as demonstrated by the dozens of impressive activist initiatives on campus this year, Harvard student activists do indeed have this appreciation.
Discounting the actions of activists as Dodge does in her article demeans their efforts and denies the true energy and conviction of student organizers. Nonetheless, I have no doubt that in the future, as in the past, Harvard activists will continue to work both within the system and against it—despite the wishes of the administration to the contrary—to change Harvard, and the world, for the better.
Photo Credit: Michael Borkson (Flickr)
Editor’s Note: The paragraph beginning “But contrary…” was added to the article an hour after the article was initially published.