Fight for your rights
Political, social student activism has returned to campus
Activism is a live and well on college campuses, and certainly at Central Michigan University.
College is a time of discovery as students move on into adulthood, and continue to learn as adults and to think for themselves; it is a time more powerful than any for analytical thought and for students to make a difference in their communities.
Last year, this editorial board challenged the CMU community, the Student Government Association and just about any student who was mad as hell to take to pavement and lead more large-scale protests. Although students have been slow to organize and demonstrate, we commend some students for starting the conversations, and getting this school on the right track.
Through public demonstrations and protests, colleges have historically hosted much of the political and social discussions that inform the sentiments of a generation. Campus protests arguably helped end the Vietnam War in the 1960s; it was the questioning, youthful energy of that same generation that fought for civil rights for both ethnic minorities and eventually for homosexuals decades later.
As students, we have the optimism, the time and the responsibility to continue these public discussions to shape the world we are soon to thrive within. Our students have already begun to make change by increasingly activist efforts.
Often in small, but passionate numbers, CMU students have hosted demonstrations for and against abortion; they have protested police brutality under the shadow of the controversy in Ferguson, Mo. Political groups, driven by students, have taken to the community to stress the importance of midterm voting.
Other groups have pushed for the use of proper personal gender pronouns, and have made climate change a top issue.
All of these feats were done in the short span of a few months this fall.
On Tuesday, another student group has plans to hand-deliver a list of demands to University President George Ross in an attempt to demand all those accused of sexual assault be promptly expelled.
These endeavors make us take hard looks at the world around us. They force us to decide whether to stand idly by or to stand up against perceived injustices. Older generations have called us out on the regular for being simply being OK with the status quo, for not making waves and being too complacent to authority.
They wonder how we can be informed citizens and work toward change, when our days are filled with photo streams, and 140-word blocks of supposed chatter.
They struggle to understand how we have embraced the plight of other people not in spite of these tools, but with them as vital weapons for change. In fact, through the wealth of information available on social media, we are more informed than ever.
As we did last year, Central Michigan Life continues to encourage students to harness the power of the information age. They must rise up and stake claim to the social evolution of society.
We also endeavor to ensure the activists of decades past that we understand the gravity of their work; that the progress toward for social justice is far from over, and we aren't giving up.
The recent protests on campus are proof that this generation will make as big of difference as any before it – maybe even more.
So the light from our phones may appear to blind, but the bulb is still on in our brains.
We know we can make a difference, and we will.
