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Have there been any recent student protests on many campuses lately? What were they protesting, and how did staff and faculty respond?

I am asking this question because I take great interest in what is going on around me, and if it is acceptable, justifiable and will affect my life or the lives of the people around me in a positive way i will not hesitate to support it. #staff #faculty #protest #protests #higher-education #college #college-admissions

college-admissions higher-education faculty staff protest protests
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Debra’s Answer

Interesting question! Yes - there are always some kind of protests going on somewhere - even if it doesn't make the evening news. One I am familiar with happened recently at Kennesaw State Univ. just outside of Atlanta, Ga. Some of the cheerleaders for the football team decided to take a knee in protest of police brutality and racism during the playing of the National Anthem . (You probably heard about this issue with the NFL). After this happened, the president of the university - who was relatively new at the college - decided the cheerleaders would stay in their locker room and not come on the field as the National anthem was being played. This caused more backlash including some saying the president was stifling free speech. A picture captured at the next game showed some of the cheerleaders still kneeling even though no one could see them. Students protested in favor of the cheerleaders - though some also agreed with the president. the president later changed his mind and withdrew the policy. Shortly there-after, football season ended and the controversy died down. The president, who had been protested about when he was chosen to be president - is now leaving the university. The students and some faculty and staff protested when this president was named as the new school's president by the state's governor. He had no previous higher ed experience - had never worked in Education before; it was a political appointment made by the Governor. And typical hiring practices for a college president, including interviews and faculty feedback, were simply ignored and not conducted. (The appointed college president was a lawyer). Again - there are always some college protest somewhere. See links below for a few other recent stories about protests on college campuses.


http://college.usatoday.com/2017/05/30/protests-erupt-over-racism-at-evergreen-state-college/


https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/evergreen-state-college-students-are-penalized-for-protests/120429


http://college.usatoday.com/tag/student-protests/

This is a link to a series of stories about recent college protests and activities.
Thank you comment icon Debra - Thank you for your answer. We need more advice like this, now more than ever! There are more than 1k unanswered questions on CV right now. Hoping you'll answer a few more this week! Jordan Rivera, Admin COACH
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Dewis’s Answer

Hi Raina,

As Nancy said, this is definitely a topic in the front of peoples minds right now. If you're looking at particular schools and want to know how they handled protests or controversial speakers, you can look them up through educational papers/sites like the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. Another way to gauge how a school will respond or let you respond as a student is looking to see if they have a statement or policy on Academic Freedom. This is one of the ways that you know if a institution is open to intellectual discourse. If they don't it's not necessarily a red flag (some school don't adopt a policy until something controversial happens) -- it may mean there's an opportunity to be a leader and help push boundaries (safely) and get one established.
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Nancy’s Answer

Raina, I will tell you that you have hit upon a current issue in higher education. How should colleges adhere to the principles of free speech and avoiding censorship while allowing guest speakers that cause controversy and may result in protests? How are students, faculty and guests to be kept safe during protests while not unduly restricting free speech and the free exchange of ideas? Learning institutions pride themselves on such freedoms. Controversy may exist because of campus or university policies, speakers invited by a student organization, a political event, or an incident perceived as discriminatory, for just a few examples. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in student leadership on most campuses without protesting, by the way, if engagement is what you are interested in. School government, clubs, advisory committees, newspapers, academic student organizations, sports teams, fraternities and sororities, and political organizations are some types of groups that support causes on campus that you may be interested to explore. Such activities have an advantage of helping to build your resume.
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