When It Comes to Protests, Boomers and Gen X Got Nothin’ on Millennials
While some college administrators recoil at the idea of sit-ins at the student union, marches across the quad, and picket signs listing demands, it seems they better get used to it. The nation’s biggest survey of American undergraduates suggests that campus protests and demonstrations are likely to be on the rise in the coming months.
According to The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2015, an annual survey of 140,000 first-year students at about 200 colleges and universities, 8.5 percent of freshmen anticipate taking part in a campus demonstration at some point during their college career. It’s a nearly 3 percent increase from 2014 and the highest percentage recorded since the question was added to the survey in 1967.
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“Student activism seems to be experiencing a revival, and last fall’s incoming freshman class appears more likely than any before it to take advantage of opportunities to participate in this part of the political process,” Kevin Eagan, director of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA and one of the authors of the survey, said in a statement.
Recent protests have challenged pervasive racial issues on campus—including the lack of student and faculty diversity and alleged profiling by campus police departments. The survey found that the most likely participants in demonstrations are underrepresented students of color. Indeed, 16 percent of black students and 10.2 percent of Latino students reported there was a “very good chance” of their being involved in protests, while only 7.1 percent of white students expected to attend demonstrations.
On Wednesday, the University of Southern California’s Black Student Assembly organized a campus march to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington and bring attention to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Mykaila Williams, a junior at USC and the executive director of the Black Student Assembly, has observed that students are “more willing than ever” to stand up for what they believe in.
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“The organizing that is happening is not only beautiful but necessary in seeking change,” she said. “It is important that change be allowed to be fought for in the very spaces that we are learning about what the world does and should look like.”
Williams added that the survey’s findings suggest that millennials, often accused of relying on technology, are capable of inciting change through more than so-called “hashtag activism.”
UCLA’s researchers also included a finding from a brief they released last fall that said black and Latino students reported experiencing less discrimination when they attended schools that were more racially diverse.
While college administrators have a way to go in embracing students of color on campus, the survey showed that about 41 percent of students want to promote understanding of racial differences, and 60 percent showed interest in achieving a better understanding of other countries and cultures.
Student activism is also extending beyond the battle for racial justice. The incoming class for 2015 is more liberal than its predecessors, the survey found. Nearly one-third of the students surveyed identified as “liberal” or “far left,” as opposed to the roughly 22 percent who identified as “conservative” or “far right.” A majority of them were also in favor of abortion rights, equal pay for women, and same-sex marriage.
This crop of freshmen is also more politically active, with about 22 percent reporting that they “hope to influence the political structure,” and nearly 60 percent saying they’re likely to vote in a federal, state, or local election, a jump of 10 percent from last year.
“If this broader commitment to community and political engagement manifests into action, particularly over the next year, college students have the potential to play a critical role in upcoming elections,” Eagan said.
Related stories on TakePart:
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• Debate Over Racist Symbols on College Campuses Spreads to England
Original article from TakePart
