Student protest

"School strike" redirects here. For climate-related schools strikes, see School Strike for Climate.

Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or academics issue and mobilization to communicate this dissatisfaction to the authorities (university or civil or both) and society in general and hopefully remedy the problem. Protest forms include but are not limited to: sit-ins, occupations of university offices or buildings, strikes etc. More extreme forms include suicide such as the case of Jan Palach's,^[1] and Jan Zajíc's protests against the end of the Prague Spring^[2] and Kostas Georgakis' protest against the Greek junta of 1967–1974.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8][dubious – discuss]}

City University of Hong Kong students staging a sit-in during 2014 Hong Kong protests over blocking of electoral reforms

History

In the West, student protests such as strikes date to the early days of universities in the Middle Ages, with some of the earliest being the University of Oxford strike of 1209,^[9][10] and the University of Paris strike of 1229, which lasted two years.

More widespread student demonstrations occurred in 19th-century Europe, for example in Imperial Russia.^[11]

20th century

Protests at historically black colleges included Shaw University (1919), Fisk University (1924–1925), Howard University (1925) and Hampton Institute (1925, 1927). The protests often involved civil rights issues between black students and white administrators.^[12][13] In the 1930s, some Jewish students in Poland protested against anti-Semitic ghetto benches legislation.^[14]

In the second half of the 20th century, significant demonstrations almost-simultaneously in many countries: the May 68 events in France began as a series of student strikes;^[15] Polish political crisis that occurred the same year also saw a major student activism;^[16] and the Mexican Movement of 1968 also started with students. The largest student strike in the history of the United States occurred in May and June 1970, in the aftermath of the American invasion of Cambodia and the killings of student protesters at Kent State University in Ohio. An estimated four million students at more than 450 universities, colleges and high schools participated in what became known as the Student strike of 1970.^[17]

It has been argued that student strikes and activism have a similarly long history in Confucian Asia.^[18]

21st century

A peak of activism ignited in 2013 across college campuses nationally with a movement known as the new Campus Anti-Rape Movement (CARM). This insurgence of student activism put the political issue of campus rape back into the national conversation. Uniquely, with the growing digital world in the early 21st century, this movement was able to accomplish what decades of activism in the realm of college campus sexual assault hadn't previously through the use of social media and networking^[19]. In a 2020 literature review by Bovill et al., researchers found that student activism can effectively alter campus policies, this is especially true against sexual violence on college campuses and how universities mishandle complaints. The researchers found that student-led movements engaging in visible protests can be particularly effective. Additionally, researchers recommended that rather than perceive student activism as a threat to their respective institutions, universities should work alongside their students, so students feel comfortable expressing their opinions and potential solutions^[20].

Starting April 2024, a wave of college protests began following mass arrests at a Colombia University protest.^[21] Students and faculty at dozens of universities protested the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, seeking for college institutions to divest from pro-Israeli causes.^[22][23]

Participation and issues

Student occupation at Cambridge University, 2010

Edinburgh University student Gaza protest, Old College Quad encampment, May 2024.

Early studies of campus protests conducted in the United States in the mid-1960s suggested that students who were more likely to take part in the protests tended to come from middle class and upper middle class backgrounds, major in social sciences and humanities, and come from families with liberal political views.^[24] Later studies from early 1970s, however, suggested that participation in protests was broader, through still more likely for students from social sciences and humanities than more vocational-oriented fields like economy or engineering.^[24] Student protesters were also more likely to describe themselves as having liberal or centrist political beliefs, and feeling politically alienated, lacking confidence in the party system and public officials.^[24]

Early campus protests in the United States were described as left-leaning and liberal.^[24] More recent research^[when?] shares a similar view, suggesting that right-leaning, conservative students and faculty are less likely to organize or join campus protests.^[25] A study of campus protests in the United States in the early 1990s identified major themes for approximately 60% of over two hundred incidents covered by media as multiculturalism and identity struggle, or in more detail as racial and ethnic struggle, women's concerns, or gay rights activities and represent what recent scholars have described both affectionately and pejoratively as "culture/cultural wars," "campus wars," "multicultural unrest," or "identity politics"... The remaining examples of student protest concerned funding (including tuition concerns), governance, world affairs, and environmental causes".^[26]

While less common, protests similar to campus protests can also happen at secondary-level education facilities, like high schools.^[24]

Forms

Brazilian students march against the military rule in Brazil, 1966

Student syndicalist general strike in Chile

Repertoire of contention in campus protests can take various forms, from peaceful sit-ins, marches, teach-ins, to more active forms that can spread off-campus and include violent clashes with the authorities.^[24][27] Recent research from a quantitative cross-national analysis conducted in 2020 on why student activism most likely takes the form of peaceful protest within the scope of institutional political processes offers an explanation - the emphasis in higher education curriculum to support values, deliberation, and new ideas^[28]. Campus protests can also involve faculty members participating in them in addition to students, through protests led by or organized by faculty, rather than students, are a minority.^[29][30] Just like students can worry about being expelled for participation in the protests, some faculty members are concerned about their job security if they were to become involved in such incidents.^{[31][25][32][33]}

A common tactic of student protest is to go on strike (sometimes called a boycott of classes), which occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school, college or university refuse to go to class. It is meant to resemble strike action by organized labour. Whereas a normal strike is intended to inflict economic damage to an employer, a student strike is more of a logistical threat: the concerned institution or government cannot afford to have a large number of students simultaneously fail to graduate. The term "student strike" has been criticized as inaccurate by some unions^[34] and commentators in the news media.^[35] These groups have indicated that they believe the term boycott is more accurate.^[34][35]

Student protests can often spread off-campus and grow in scale, mobilizing off campus activists and organizations, for example the 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign led to the city-wide 2014 Hong Kong protests.^[36]

One form that student-led activism can take is through the deliberate utilization of posters and slogans. There is research to support the method of analyzing rhetoric and visual demonstrations used in student protests to better understand the motivations and goals of a social movement.^[37] Cécile Van De Velde, a sociology professor at the University of Montreal, offers a relevant perspective on protest writings within social movement research. She posits that such rhetoric used on student posters possess an "expressive richness," allowing researchers to better understand the concerns, shared identities, and emotional expressions of those involved in the movement. To help highlight the importance of slogans, Van De Velde discusses the 1960s feminist movement slogan ‘The personal is the political’ which was decisive in the development of the movement itself from the 1960s onward^[37].

Response and aftermath

Victory march by Bangladeshi students after the resignation of Sheikh Hasina in 2024

Over time, university tolerance of campus protests have grown; while protests occurred before the 20th century they were more likely to be "crushed... with an iron fist... by university leaders" than by mid-20th century, when they have become much more common and tolerated. By the early 21st century, the university response to campus protest in the United States is much more likely to be negotiations, and willingness to yield at least to some of the student demands.^[38] There was a resurgence of student activism in the United States in 2015.^[39] In Germany, tuition in public universities were abolished in response to student protests between 2006 and 2016.^[40][41]

University response to student activism and campus protests can still be much harsher in less liberal countries like China or Taiwan.^[31] In 1980 student protests in South Korea were violently suppressed by the military (the Gwangju uprising).^[42] As recently as in 1989 a large scale student demonstration in China that moved off-campus, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, was met with deadly force.^[43]

Examples

• 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses
  • 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupation
• 2024 Boston University strikes
• 2023 University of Brighton protests
• 2023 University of Manchester protests
• 2022 Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (Querétaro, México) strike and occupation
• 2022 Huntington High School walkout
• 2021 Newport High School Student Demonstration
• 2021 Boğaziçi University protests
• 2021 Columbia University strike
• 2020 Thai protests
• 2019–2020 Iraq student protests^Ref.?
• 2019 JNU Protests in New Delhi – India^Ref.?
• 2018–2020 "Fridays for Future" School strike for climate – global
• 2018 Bangladesh road safety protests
• 2018 "March for Our Lives" student protest – United States
• 2017–18 Mahatma Gandhi Central University protests – India
• 2017–18 Iranian protests
• 2017 Jallikattu protests – India
• 2016 SATs Strike protest against tests for 6 and 7-year olds – UK^[44]
• 2016 Boston Public School students walkout in protest of budget cuts – United States^Ref.?
• 2016 Joint Student protests in Central Universities India^Ref.?
• 2016 JNU Student Protests in New Delhi – India^Ref.?
• 2015 "Fees Must Fall" – South Africa
• 2015 University of Missouri protests – United States
• Million Student March – United States
• 2015 Bangladesh student protests
• 2015 University of Amsterdam Bungehuis and Maagdenhuis Occupations – Netherlands
• 2014 Jadavpur University protests – India
• 2014 Hong Kong student protest for democracy^[45]
• 2014 Sunflower Student Movement – Taiwan
• 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping – Mexico
• 2012 Quebec student protests – Canada
• 2012 Valencia student protests^{[46][47][48][49]}
• 2011 student protests in Chile
• 2010 University of Puerto Rico Strike
• 2010 UK student protests
• 2008 Greek riots
• 2007 Dutch pupil strike
• 2006 student protests in Chile
• 2006 student uprising in Iran
• 2005 Quebec student protests – Canada
• July 1999 Iran student protests
• 1996–1997 protests in Serbia
• 1996 Quebec student protests – Canada
• 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre – China
• 1989 Anti-SAP riots – Nigeria
• 1988 Deaf President Now protest – United States
• 1980 student protests in Kabul – Afghanistan
• 1978 "Ali Must Go" protests – Nigeria
• 1976–77 Soweto uprising – South Africa
• November 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising – Greece
• 1971 Diliman Commune – Philippines
• 1970–1972 Huelga schools, Houston – United States
• 1970 Student Strike – United States
• Protests of 1968
  • 1968–69 Japanese university protests
  • Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968–1969 – United States
  • 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia
  • May 1968 uprisings – France
  • 1968 protests in Poland
  • 1968 East L.A. walkouts – United States
• 1966 Chinese Cultural Revolution
• 1965 Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu – India
• 1964–65 U.C. Berkeley Free Speech Movement – United States
• 1960 Anpo protests – Japan
• 1956 Bucharest student movement – Romania
• 1924-1925 Fisk University protest
• 1901–1904 Września children strike – Poland
• 1766 Butter rebellion at Harvard University – United States
• 1229 University of Paris strike – France

See also

• Academic Crisis
• Civil disobedience
• Campus police
• Social movement
• Student voice

References

1. "Jaroslava Moserova – remembering Jan Palach – Radio Prague". Radio.cz. 21 January 2003. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
2. Alan Levy (29 September 2015). So Many Heroes. Permanent Press (ORD). p. 560. ISBN 978-1-5040-2334-4.
3. "Story of Kostas in Corfu City Hall website". Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2010-03-17. During the years of dictatorship in Greece (1967–1974) many Corfiots were enlisted in resistance groups, but the case of Kostas Georgakis is unique in the whole of Greece. The 22-year-old Corfiot student of geology with an act of self-sacrifice and a spirit of dynamic protest, which could not bear to see Greece under the military regime, set himself on fire the first morning hours of 19th September 1970 in the Matteoti Sq. in the Italian city of Genoa. For security reasons his body was buried in Corfu four months later, his self-sacrifice though, a rare event for that time, caused international sensation and was considered one of the most important resistance acts of that period. Later the Hellenic State and his homeland Corfu honoured the man, who with his life became a symbol of resistance and patriotism, herald of the students' sacrifice in Polytechnion in 1973.
4. Annamaria Rivera (2012). Il fuoco della rivolta. Torce umane dal Maghreb all'Europa. EDIZIONI DEDALO. p. 118. ISBN 978-88-220-6322-9. Retrieved 15 March 2013. geologia Kostas Georgakis, op- positore greco di cultura laica, esasperato dalle minacce e dalle rappresaglie subite da agenti dei servizi segreti greci in Italia, s'im- molò in piazza Matteotti per protestare contro la giunta dei Co- lonnelli.
5. Helen Vlachos (1972). Griechenland, Dokumentation einer Diktatur. Jugend und Volk. ISBN 978-3-7141-7415-1. Retrieved 15 March 2013. In memoriam Kostas Georgakis Er starb für die Freiheit Griechenlands so wie Jan Palach für die der Tschechoslowakei Lieber Vater, verzeih mir diese Tat und weine nicht. Dein Sohn ist kein Held, er ist ein Mann wie alle anderen, vielleicht ..
6. Giovanni Pattavina; Oriana Fallaci (1984). Alekos Panagulis, il rivoluzionario don Chisciotte di Oriana Fallaci: saggio politico-letterario. Edizioni italiane di letteratura e scienze. p. 211. Retrieved 10 April 2013. no di questi fu lo studente greco Kostas Georgakis, un ragazzo di 22 anni che il 29 settembre 1970 si bruciò vivo a Genova per protestare contro la soppressione della libertà in Grecia. La sera del suo sacrificio riaccompagnò a casa la ...
7. Rivisteria. 2000. p. 119. Retrieved 10 April 2013. Il caso Kostas Georgakis. Pag.250, L.25000. ISBN 88-8163-217-9. Erga, Genova. Il suicidio del giovane studente greco Kostas Georgakis in sacrificio alla propria patria nel nome di libertà e democrazia apre una finestra su trent'anni di storia ...
8. Kostis Kornetis (15 November 2013). Children of the Dictatorship: Student Resistance, Cultural Politics and the "Long 1960s" in Greece. Berghahn Books. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-1-78238-001-6. In 1971 at the Piazza Matteotti in Genova, the young student Kostas Georgakis set himself ablaze in protest against the ... a Panteios student and presentday political scientist, recalls how he suffered when Georgakis died, being inspired by his ...
9. Joseph Lynch (16 December 2013). The Medieval Church: A Brief History. Routledge. pp. 254–. ISBN 978-1-317-87053-1.
10. Benjamin McKie Rastall (1905). The Cripple Creek strike of 1893. Colorado College. pp. 47–49.
11. Hugh Seton-Watson (24 February 2017). The Decline of Imperial Russia: 1855–1914. Taylor & Francis. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-1-315-40516-2.
12. Davis, Sarajanee. "Black Student Activism in the 1920s and 1930s". www.ncpedia.org. NCpedia. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
13. Alford, James. "Training the Hands, Head, and Heart: Student Protest and Acitivism at Hampton Institute During the 1920s". ucincinnatipress.manifoldapp.org. University of Cincinnati Press. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
14. Emanuel Melzer (31 December 1997). No Way Out: The Politics of Polish Jewry 1935–1939. Hebrew Union College Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-87820-141-9.
15. Michael Staudenmaier (2012). Truth and Revolution: A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969–1986. AK Press. pp. 42–. ISBN 978-1-84935-097-6.
16. Beate Kutschke; Barley Norton (25 April 2013). Music and Protest in 1968. Cambridge University Press. pp. 216–. ISBN 978-1-107-00732-1.
17. Robert Wuthnow (2012). Red State Religion: Faith and Politics in America's Heartland. Princeton University Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-691-15055-0.
18. Gerard J.De Groot (25 September 2014). Student Protest: The Sixties and After. Taylor & Francis. pp. 227–. ISBN 978-1-317-88048-6.
19. Heldman, Caroline; Ackerman, Alissa; Breckenridge-Jackson, Ian (2018). The new campus anti-rape movement: internet activism and social justice. Lanham: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-1-4985-5402-2.
20. Bovill, Helen; Mcmahon, Sarah; Demers, Jennifer; Banyard, Victoria; Carrasco, Vlad; Keep, Louise (2021-05-01). "How does student activism drive cultural campus change in the UK and US regarding sexual violence on campus?". Critical Social Policy. 41 (2): 165–187. doi:10.1177/0261018320913967. ISSN 0261-0183.
21. Goldstein, Judy (2024-04-18). "In Focus: The first 24 hours of the 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment'". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
22. Yerushalmy, Jonathan; Livingstone, Helen; Salam, Erum (2 May 2024). "Where are the US college campus protests and what is happening?". www.theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
23. "What do pro-Palestinian student protesters at US universities want?". BBC News. 2024-04-26. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
24. Clarke, James W.; Egan, Joseph (1972-05-01). "Social and Political Dimensions of Campus Protest Activity". The Journal of Politics. 34 (2): 500–523. doi:10.2307/2129365. ISSN 0022-3816. JSTOR 2129365. S2CID 153787448.
25. Jonathan Zimmerman (8 August 2016). Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-0-19-062741-6.
26. Rhoads, Robert A. (1998-11-01). "Student Protest and Multicultural Reform". The Journal of Higher Education. 69 (6): 621–646. doi:10.1080/00221546.1998.11780745. ISSN 0022-1546.
27. Rob Kirkpatrick (24 January 2011). 1969: The Year Everything Changed. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. pp. 9–. ISBN 978-1-61608-055-6.
28. Ustyuzhanin, Vadim V; Sawyer, Patrick S; Korotayev, Andrey V (2023-08-01). "Students and protests: A quantitative cross-national analysis". International Journal of Comparative Sociology. 64 (4): 375–401. doi:10.1177/00207152221136042. ISSN 0020-7152.
29. J. Fredericks Volkwein (1968). Relationship of college student protest and participation in policy-making to institutional characteristics. Cornell Univ. p. 65.
30. Bruce L.R. Smith (18 June 1975). The New Political Economy: The Public Use of the Private Sector. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-349-02042-3.
31. Teresa Wright (2001). The Perils of Protest: State Repression and Student Activism in China and Taiwan. University of Hawaii Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-8248-2401-3.
32. Astin, Alexander W.; Bayer, Alan E. (1971-04-01). "Antecedents and Consequents of Disruptive Campus Protests". Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance. 4 (1): 18–30. doi:10.1080/00256307.1971.12022476. ISSN 0025-6307.
33. Jeffrey A. Turner (2010). Sitting in and Speaking Out: Student Movements in the American South, 1960-1970. University of Georgia Press. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-8203-3593-3.
34. "CUPFA Response to Student Class Boycott: March 3, 2012". Concordia University Part Time Faculty Association. 2012-03-03. Retrieved 16 May 2012.
35. Deck, Larry (2012-04-15). "Student "Strike" Is Losing Steam". Le Québécois Libre (299). ISSN 1707-0309.
36. Jason Luger; Julie Ren (18 May 2017). Art and the City: Worlding the Discussion Through a Critical Artscape. Taylor & Francis. pp. 47–. ISBN 978-1-315-30302-4.
37. Van De Velde, Cécile (2024-09-02). "The power of slogans: using protest writings in social movement research". Social Movement Studies. 23 (5): 569–588. doi:10.1080/14742837.2022.2084065. ISSN 1474-2837.
38. Jonathan Zimmerman (8 August 2016). Campus Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0-19-062741-6.
39. Wong, Alia (2015-05-21). "Student Activism Is Making a Comeback". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
40. Türkoğlu, Didem (2019-09-12). "Student protests and organised labour: Developing a research agenda for mobilisation in late neoliberalism". Current Sociology. 67 (7): 997–1017. doi:10.1177/0011392119865768. ISSN 0011-3921. S2CID 203453013.
41. "Germany scraps tuition fees after mass student protests cause shift in public opinion". International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
42. Meredith Leigh Weiss; Edward Aspinall (2012). Student Activism in Asia: Between Protest and Powerlessness. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 134–. ISBN 978-0-8166-7969-0.
43. Cheng, Kris (2017-12-21). "Declassified: Chinese official said at least 10,000 civilians died in 1989 Tiananmen massacre, documents show". Hong Kong Free Press HKFP. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
44. "Kids' strike over school tests". Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist). 1 June 2016.
45. "HK students escalate pro-democracy protest". BBC News. bbc.co.uk. 2014-09-27. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
46. "Spain protest over riot police beatings in Valencia". BBC News. Bbc.co.uk. 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
47. Tremlett, Giles (February 21, 2012). "Valencia police and students clash over education cuts". The Guardian.
48. "Thousands take to Valencia streets in protest against police violence and education cuts". El País. Elpais.com. 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
49. "Spanish police clash violently with students: "I don't understand how the situation degenerated so fast"". The FRANCE 24 Observers. Observers.france24.com. 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2013-11-01.

External links

• Bloodiest Student Protests – slideshow by Life magazine
• Occupy Wall Street Protests Shifting to College Campuses