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Campus protest or student protest is a form of
student activism that takes the form of
protest
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of cooper ...
at university
campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate
student dissatisfaction with a given
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
or
academics
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
issue and mobilization to communicate this dissatisfaction to the authorities (university or civil or both) and
society
A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...
in general and hopefully remedy the problem.
Protest
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of cooper ...
forms include but are not limited to:
sit-ins
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
, occupations of university offices or buildings,
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
* Strike (surname)
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
*Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...
s etc. More extreme forms include
suicide such as the case of
Jan Palach
Jan Palach (; 11 August 1948 – 19 January 1969) was a Czech student of history and political economics at Charles University in Prague. His self-immolation was a political protest against the end of the Prague Spring resulting from the 1968 in ...
's, and
Jan Zajíc
Jan Zajíc (July 3, 1950 – February 25, 1969) was a Czech student who committed suicide by self-immolation as a political protest. He was a student of the Střední průmyslová škola železniční (Industrial Highschool of Railways) technica ...
's protests against the end of the
Prague Spring and
Kostas Georgakis
Kostas Georgakis ( el, Κώστας Γεωργάκης) (23 August 194819 September 1970) was a Greek student of geology, who in the early hours of 19 September 1970, set himself ablaze in Matteotti square in Genoa in a fatal protest against th ...
' protest against the
Greek military junta of 1967–1974.
[. Quote: ''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'']
History
In
the West
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NATO ...
, student protests such as strikes date to the
early days of universities in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, with some of the earliest being the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
strike of 1209,
and the
University of Paris strike of 1229
The University of Paris strike of 1229 was caused by the deaths of a number of students in punishing a student riot. The students protested with a "dispersion", or student strike, which lasted more than two years and led to a number of reforms of t ...
, which lasted two years.
More widespread student demonstrations occurred in
19th century Europe, for example in
Imperial Russia.
In 1930s, some Polish students protested against anti-Semitic
ghetto benches
Ghetto benches (known in Polish as ''getto ławkowe'') was a form of official segregation in the seating of university students, introduced in 1935 at the Lwow Polytechnic. Rectors at other higher education institutions in the Second Polish Rep ...
legislation.
In the
second half of the 20th century, significant demonstrations almost-simultaneously in many countries: the
May 1968 events
Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which h ...
in France began as a series of student strikes;
Polish political crisis that occurred the same year also saw a major student activism;
and the
Mexican Movement of 1968
The Mexican Movement of 1968, known as the Movimiento Estudiantil (''student movement'') was a social movement that happened in Mexico in 1968. A broad coalition of students from Mexico's leading universities garnered widespread public support f ...
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
Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...
in
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. 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
The student strike of 1970 was a massive protest across the United States, that included walk-outs from college and high school classrooms initially in response to the United States expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. Nearly 900 campuses ...
.
It has been argued that student strikes and activism have a similarly long history in
Confucian Asia.
Participation and issues
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
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...
and
upper middle class
In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term ''lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class strat ...
backgrounds, major in
social science
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...
s and
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
, and come from families with
liberal political views.
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.
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.
Early campus protests in the United States were described as
left-leaning
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
and
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
.
More recent research shares a similar view, suggesting that
right-leaning, conservative students and faculty are less likely to organize or join campus protests.
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
Governance is the process of interactions through the laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system ( family, tribe, formal or informal organization, a territory or across territories). It is done by the gove ...
,
world affairs
''World Affairs'' is an American quarterly journal covering international relations. At one time, it was an official publication of the American Peace Society. The magazine has been published since 1837 and was re-launched in January 2008 as a new ...
, and
environmental causes".
While less common, protests similar to campus protests can also happen at secondary-level education facilities, like high schools.
Forms
Repertoire of contention
Repertoire of contention refers, in social movement theory, to the set of various protest-related tools and actions available to a movement or related organization in a given time frame. The historian Charles Tilly, who brought the concept into ...
in campus protests can take various forms, from peaceful
sit-ins, marches,
teach-in
A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific time fr ...
s, to more active forms that can spread off-campus and include violent clashes with the authorities.
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.
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.
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
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...
,
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...
or
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
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 and commentators in the
news media
The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and ...
.
These groups have indicated that they believe the term
boycott is more accurate.
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
The 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign, also known as 922 Class Boycott and 926 Class Boycott, is a student strike protesting the PRC Standing Committee of the National People's Congress's restriction on nomination system of the election of ...
led to the city-wide
2014 Hong Kong protests
A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014.
The protests began after t ...
.
Response and aftermath
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.
There was a resurgence of student activism in the United States in 2015. In Germany, tuition in public universities were abolished in response to
student protests between 2006-2012.)
University response to student activism and campus protests can still be much harsher in less liberal countries like China or Taiwan.
In 1980 student protests in South Korea were violently suppressed by the military (the
Gwangju Uprising
The Gwangju Uprising was a popular uprising in the city of Gwangju, South Korea, from May 18 to May 27, 1980, which pitted local, armed citizens against soldiers and police of the South Korean government. The event is sometimes called 5·18 (M ...
).
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.
Examples
*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
The 2021 Boğaziçi University protests were demonstrations that started on 4 January against the appointment of Melih Bulu by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as rector of Boğaziçi University, which is one of the top academic institutions in ...
*
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
School Strike for Climate ( sv, Skolstrejk för klimatet), also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, is an international movement of school students who skip Friday ...
– global
*
2018 Bangladesh road safety protests
A series of public protests in Bangladesh advocating improved road safety were held from 29 July to 8 August 2018. They were sparked by the deaths of two high-school students in Dhaka struck by a bus operated by an unlicensed driver who was rac ...
* 2018 "
March for Our Lives
March for Our Lives (MFOL) was a student-led demonstration in support of gun control legislation. It took place in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018, with over 880 sibling events throughout the United States and around the world, and wa ...
" student protest – United States
* 2017–18
Mahatma Gandhi Central University protests
Mahatma Gandhi Central University (MGCU), is a Central University, India, central university located in Motihari, Bihar, India. MGCU has 7 schools and 20 academic departments. This is the second Central University in Bihar after Central Univers ...
– India
*
2017–18 Iranian protests
*
2017 Jallikattu protests – India
* 2016 SATs Strike protest against tests for 6 and 7 year olds – UK
* 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
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak album ...
– 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
* 2014
Sunflower Student Movement
The Sunflower Student Movement is associated with a protest movement driven by a coalition of students and civic groups that came to a head between March 18 and April 10, 2014, in the Legislative Yuan and, later, also the Executive Yuan of T ...
– Taiwan
*
2014 Iguala mass kidnapping
On September 26, 2014, forty-three male students disappeared from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College after being forcibly abducted in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were allegedly taken into custody by local police officers from Iguala an ...
– Mexico
*
2012 Quebec student protests
The 2012 Quebec student protests (movement) were a series of student protests led by student unions such as the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, and the Fédéra ...
– Canada
* 2012 Valencia student protests
*
2011 student protests in Chile
Eleven or 11 may refer to:
*11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12
* one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11
Literature
* ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn
*''E ...
*
2010 University of Puerto Rico Strike
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...
*
2010 UK student protests
*
2008 Greek riots
The 2008 Greek riots started on 6 December 2008, when Alexandros Grigoropoulos ( el, Αλέξανδρος Γρηγορόπουλος), a 15-year-old Greek student, was killed by a special officer in Exarcheia district of central Athens. The kill ...
*
2007 Dutch pupil strike
*
2006 student protests in Chile
*
2006 student uprising in Iran
*
2005 Quebec student protests
The 2005 Quebec student protests were a series of student strikes and student protests in opposition to budget cuts of C$103 million in the Grants and Loans program by the Charest government. It occurred between February 24 and April 2005 and ...
– Canada
*
July 1999 Iran student protests
*
1996–1997 protests in Serbia
In the winter of 1996–1997, university students and Serbian opposition parties organized a series of peaceful protests in the Republic of Serbia (then part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) in response to electoral fraud attempted by the Soc ...
*
1996 Quebec student protests – Canada
*
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre - China
*
1989 Anti-SAP riots - Nigeria
*
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
The Diliman Commune was an uprising led by the students, faculty members, and residents of the University of the Philippines Diliman, together with transport workers, on February 1–9, 1971, in protest of the three centavo increase in oil pri ...
– Philippines
* 1970-1972
Huelga schools, Houston – United States
*
1970 Student Strike – United States
*
1968 Protests
The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies.
In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...
**
1968–69 Japanese university protests
**
Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968-1969 – United States
**
1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia
Student protests were held in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, as the first mass protest in Yugoslavia after World War II. Protests also broke out in other capitals of Yugoslav republics — Sarajevo, Zagreb and Ljubljana — but they were smaller and shor ...
**
May 1968 uprisings – France
**
1968 protests in Poland
** 1968
East L.A. walkouts – United States
*
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
* 1901-1904
Września children strike – Poland
* 1766
Butter rebellion The Butter Rebellion, which took place at Harvard University in 1766, was the first recorded Harvard student protest in what is now the United States. In the decade preceding the American Revolution, economic difficulties made the acquisition of fre ...
at Harvard University – United States
*
1229 University of Paris strike
The University of Paris strike of 1229 was caused by the deaths of a number of students in punishing a student riot. The students protested with a "dispersion", or student strike, which lasted more than two years and led to a number of reforms of t ...
– France
See also
*
Academic Crisis The Academic Crisis ( pt, Crise académica) is the name given to a Portugal, Portuguese governmental policy instigated in 1962 by the ''Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo'' entailing the boycott and closure of several student associations and organ ...
*
Civil disobedience
*
Campus police
Campus police or university police in the United States and Canada are sworn police or peace officers employed by a college or university to protect that private property of the campus and surrounding areas and the people who live, work, and v ...
*
Social movement
*
Student voice
References
{{Reflist
External links
Bloodiest Student Protests– slideshow by
''Life'' magazineOccupy Wall Street Protests Shifting to College Campuses
*
Protest
A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration or remonstrance) is a public expression of objection, disapproval or dissent towards an idea or action, typically a political one.
Protests can be thought of as acts of cooper ...