Title: History Shows Student Protests Can Affect National Politics | Time
Headings: How Campus Protests Can Affect National Politics
How Campus Protests Can Affect National Politics
Historians explain how the past informs the present
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Content: The process would start with student demonstrations against the Vietnam War and federal government presence on campus, particularly ROTC. Students would occupy university buildings, sometimes violently. Administrators would respond by calling in the local police or the National Guard to remove them. When protesters were roughly removed and arrested, neutral opinion on the campus would turn against the Administration, and students would boycott classes. They would present a list of demands—such as the elimination of ROTC, the admission of more minority students or the creation of a Black Studies department—and in many cases would get at least some of what they wanted. They got something else too: a change to the mission of higher education. In response to the protests, colleges in the 1970s decided that their mission was not simply to study and teach about the world around them, but to create an environment free of racism, sexism and homophobia, and to promote of certain ideas of justice and progress. The script for today’s demonstrations reveals that students have been thoroughly indoctrinated in that post-1970s concept, and that they believe more work along those lines needs to be done. A modern protest usually begins with reported incidents of prejudice on campus.