When Students Need to Protest

March for Our Lives

In 2018, a series of violence on high schools -- after decades of violence on middle and high schools and community college -- hundreds of thousands of adolescent students protested politicians' apathy against violence. The "March for Our Lives" brought together sometimes hundreds, and sometimes only one student across campuses.

Yes, I know some students walked out of their classes just to get out of classes. Don't be cynical about this. It's not new. In each protest movement, every mass has some just "wannabes" and this mirrors any movement, positive, negative, or neutral.

But we have to respect the intention of the protests -- to use student bodies show the fear, frustration, depression, and hope. Politicians respond to violence with "thoughts and prayers," but these youth use some active rhetoric to make the conversation real. And yes, very, very powerful pundits and very, very powerful political machines have attempted to deride the students' voices, even to criticize their youth, one, for example, said that younger-than-18 are not citizens and should not protest anything. These detractors often erase history, for example, without looking backward at an important event in the U.S. Civil Rights movement called the Children's March in 1963, where youth were attacked by Birmingham police and their dogs. This is part of American history and this year's March for Our Lives will be remembered in history. But I doubt that the politicians will remember in the legislatures.

A police officer takes away protest signs on May 3, 1963. Moments later firemen hosed demonstrators. Notice the very young boys and girls in public streets. (Ed Jones/The Birmingham News)

Community College Students and Protests

Where I really want to go here is not a historical review, but address how community college students have rights. Community colleges tend to be very conservative -- the local communities themselves are very idealistic about the colleges' original missions, and those missions are most often around "business" and "economic success." We should celebrate the economic power that colleges offer our citizens. But most communities do not celebrate "unalienable rights" because we assume that we already have those rights and the systems will always protect us. I am not criticizing the false dichotomy of conservatism vs liberalism used too easily by national pundits. But I am criticizing the definition of conservatism -- the status quo maintenance of power systems. Communities are conservative my definition and the community college administrations and their faculty prefer to keep conservative to maintain the education-business relationships. That's fine.

But what is missing the core promise of American ideals and the original intention of community colleges. In 1947, the Truman Commission called for community colleges (then called junior colleges) with this call:

American colleges and universities must envision a much larger role for higher education in the national life. They can no longer consider themselves merely the institute for producing an intellectual elite; they must become the means by which every citizen, youth, and adult is enabled and encouraged to carry his education, formal and informal, as far as his native capacities permit.
This conception is the inevitable consequence of the democratic faith; universal education is indispensable to the full and liberal realization of the democratic ideal. No society can long remain free unless where ignorance prevails. . . . Education that liberates and ennobles must be made equally available to all. Justice to the individual demands this; the safety and progress of the Nation depend upon it. America cannot afford to let any of its potential human resources go undiscovered and undeveloped. (President’s Commission on Higher Education 101)

In short, the real mission of education is to liberate the community -- the democratic faith, free from ignorance. 

But I feel that too many college students follow their secondary schools' main/body control and follow the traditions into community college. We rarely see open discussion of community concerns on campus, across classes, connecting with local authorities for real debate. What is missing the protest.

Protest starts with individuals. The student should protest with the professor in a collegial conversation over coffee, questioning texts, discourses, pedagogy, assignments, and assessment. Then meeting with additional students with informed resources about these concerns. And approaching student government with their concerns. And then collectively pressuring faculty and administration for changes. 

Know the reality -- the politicians are pulling the strings. The politicians pressure the faculty and the administrations and the students' voices are always silent. Only when students protest back to the faculty and back to the administration will we have a true public sphere and have multiple protests back and forth. I find most professors want students to protests because faculty are too tired after decades in resistant to the politicians' power. Students can change that. But they must start small, then collaboratively. 

Student Government. Source:  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Get Started

1. Meet your professor and understand the course and the politics behind the course
2. Meet with other students and find allies
3. Meet your student government representatives and start this long conversation.
4. Meet your college deans, vice presidents, and presidents. 
5. Meet your local legislators -- they control much of the power and some of the purse to change your college. 
6. But don't be silent. Silent is death. Mediocrity is death. 

The Professorate Will Join

Many faculty will join students. We want students to rise up to the power of a democracy. Teacher Christian Czaniecki explains his justification: 

What I can and will do is be there to provide an objective accounting of history, of life, and of the world, as a teacher should, so that they are armed with the knowledge and the perspective to face the world they live in, and work to make it a place that they believe is just and free and inclusive.