Politically Savvy: What Happened to the Old-Fashioned College Protest?

During the Vietnam War era, college campuses were a breeding ground for the antiwar protest; college students protesting the war became the backbone of the peace movement. Today, I think I’ve seen a grand total of one protest on my campus, and it was poorly organized and poorly attended, and the administration and the rest of the university hardly took notice, let alone the national news.

I can’t remember the last time I saw my classmates protest the war in Iraq, or the situation in Burma, or the rising cost of tuition. But if, however, if the cost of beer goes up, Facebook adds a new feature to its newsfeed, or the university thinks about changing our mascot, they can be counted on to make lots of Facebook groups expressing their anger.

So where did the hardcore student protesting go? The face of college activism is changing with the onslaught of new technology offered in the 21st century. More and more, students are relying less on picketing and protesting and using more subtle methods of getting their message across – though just as effective, if not more, one could argue. So where did the activists go, and what are they doing now to make their messages heard?

YouTube. What started out as a simple site for people to post and share their videos with their friends has exploded into an extremely useful medium of communication for almost anything – classes, political debates, and student activism. When University of Florida student Andrew Meyer was Tasered after asking a question and refusing to back down during a John Kerry speech, his classmates videotaped the incident and posted it on YouTube. The posting of this video on YouTube allowed millions of American students beyond just the borders of the University of Florida to see the incident firsthand and share in Andrew Meyer’s classmates’ outrage, allowing what could have sparked just a campus protest to turn into a national outcry.

Blogs. Blogs are currently the number one fastest-growing form of media in the world. There are thousands upon thousands of blogs out there, each from an individual with a voice and an opinion about the world. Numerous student activists are using blogs as a tool to reach out to larger audiences than ever before, such as It’s Getting Hot In Here. Websites like ProgressiveU.org and Campus Progress offer social networking, blogging, and activism all rolled into one to a network of thousands of students while also offering students tools, information, and resources to be successful activists on their campus.

Self-Starters. Many students feel they can’t do much by protesting what they don’t like on their campus or in society, so instead they’re going out there, taking initiative, and starting their own movements. STAND, which stands for Student Taking Action Now: Darfur, was begun by a few George Washington University students in 2004 and now has turned into a national activist group with chapters spanning over 300 college campuses. In just a few short years, STAND has built a network of thousands of students across America working proactively to spread awareness and bring change to Darfur.

College activism today is different than it ever was before; activists are rejecting the traditional picket protests for technologically-savvy forms of protest that can reaches audiences of millions beyond the walls of their campus. Blogs, YouTubes, and student-led nonprofit organizations are just a few of the many ways today that students are affecting change in their world – and you can do the same. Find easy ways to get involved through websites like Campus Progress or Idealist.org, and start making a difference!

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