Students & Political Activism
U.S. colleges and universities have an age-old practice of political activism. They are centers of academic activity in which concentrations of young people live in close proximity and can experience new ideas and concepts about the world. The public expects that the campuses will take national responsibility from time to time in response to national and international crises.
Lately, the media has reported worrying news about how today's students are politically indifferent and civically detached. Most reports quote findings from a national freshmen survey carried out annually by the University of California--Los Angeles. (Astin et al, 1997). According to the data in 1997, college freshmen's dedication to political causes was at its lowest in the survey's 32 year history. Only 26.7% of today's students reported that keeping abreast with political affairs was an important objective, compared to 57.8% of students answering the survey in 1966. Several other survey indicators prove this drop in civic engagement among students. Compared to 1992 figures, there has also been a 10% decrease in the number of students devoted to promoting racial perception and almost a 6% decrease in the number of students dedicated to influencing social values. Students may not fully realize the extent to which politics affect their everyday lives. (Sharshiner, 2004)
However a closer look at what students in fact do once they're in college--beyond the first two weeks—shows that American undergraduates engage in a high level of activism and are active in ways quite different from previous generations.
Campus activism today covers a much broader range of causes, with students organizing around international solidarity and human rights; variety in higher education and attacks on affirmative action; labor issues and the rising corporate influence on higher education; and a series of environmental concerns. Contrasting the......
