Student Activism

The Occupy Wall Street movement has gone to Occupy Everywhere with occupation projects at possibly 300 locations. And now there is a movement to get students involved with Occupy Colleges. 75+ schools had a walkout today (Oct 5th) and it will get larger. I predict tent cities!

Years ago for several months, I tried to serve as the regional coordinator for the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) for Indiana, Michigan and Illinois. I contacted a bunch of people and groups, but the regional network never amounted to that much. Since then, I've seen SEAC (up until several years ago) spend a large amount of time trying to recruit regional coordinators for the entire US and build regional (or state) networks. We used to have a big map of the United States in our office with our 17 regions outlined and stick pins in it for groups and coordinators.

I think there has been a dramatic increase in the popularity of Disorientation Guides.

These date back to the Sixties, when activists started handing out an alternative guide to the university and community to counter the propaganda of the administration (and the regular student manual).

They continued to be popular in the 80s and 90s due to the efforts of the Progressive Student Network and later the Movement for Democracy and Education.

I think Students for a Free Culture is about as new of a new student movement as you can get!

I'm stealing the term from "new social movement" - which really dates back to the seventies so I added a second "new" to it.

The open source movement has been around for a relatively long time, however it looks like it will reach into mainstream culture by transforming itself into a Transparency movement that addresses the need to open up our culture and institutions of power, while maintaining our right to privacy.

Ten years after I worked on this campaign, the group I started is trying once again to include "sexual orientation" in the University of Notre Dame's non-discrimination clause.

They're off to an excellent start!

http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2008/04/30/News/Psa-To.Submit.Petition.To.Office.Of.The.President-3357806.shtml

Students from the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) will deliver a petition to the Office of the President Wednesday to add sexual orientation to Notre Dame's Non-Discrimination, PSA member Mike McCann said.

Yesterday, the Notre Dame president rejected the goals of the Campaign for Human Dignity: inclusion of sexual orientation in the non-discrimination clause, and the recognition of the LGBT student group.

There's a nice picture.

http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2009/03/31/News/No.Changes.Made.To.Discrimination.Clause-3688938.shtml

The Student Environmental Action Coalition has a new website.

I've worked on the website from 2001-2007, and before retiring, I transitioned the content over to a content management system (Drupal). So I'm glad to see that they are able to figure out the Drupal system and improve upon it!

Latest SDS Newsletter is Out

The summer is an excellent time to write a
Disorientation Guide (our archive).

Since the Sixties, possibly starting at Berkeley, student activists have been publishing Disorientation Guides - generally in the fall - to let incoming students know how they can get involved in movements for progressive social change at their school.

You can distribute the guides to every new student, or in smaller numbers.

As the school years winds down for most students, now is an opportune time to think BIG.

You should consider writing a history of student activism at your school!