Activists Shake Brown

The walk up the steep College Hill from the grey industrial town of Providence to the lush green enclosed Brown University gradually reveals a small group of sign-bearing protestors. They can be seen every Friday afternoon rush hour proclaiming their message against United States intervention into Central America to all who make their way up the hill.

"There are more activists this year but they are not the majority," says Brown History Professor and protestor William McLoughlin, who has been a political activist since the civil rights movement of the 1950's. Activism "never died down but it has picked up considerably," McLoughlin adds.

The attention political activists have received on the Brown campus has certainly picked up. A "suicide pill" referendum attracted international media attention to this hilltop university campus last fall as did this winter's citizen's arrest of CIA recruiters by Brown student activists.

The campus-wide referendum, which passed by a 1044 to 687 vote, called for the university's health services to stock cyanide pills. The students would then have the option to commit suicide in case of a nuclear attack.

No pills were stocked, yet despite attacks about the manner of their activism, the organizers of the protest felt their point about nuclear war had been made. More important to them, they said, was that they got people thinking about the issue.

When protestors attempted to make a citizens' arrest of CIA recruiters, the same cries of media stunt which had been made about the referendum, were again heard on campus. Nonetheless 800 students crowded into the university disciplinary trial of the 67 protestors.

Resurgence of Activism

The numbers seem to indicate a resurgence of activism on college campuses, or at least Brown's, although polls indicate a new materialism dominating the campus. The activists are aware of this, "You can't argue with the polls but there are plenty who are not happy with the way the world is," says Sandor Katz, an organizer of the CIA protest.

But Katz also point out that the Brown protests are not as isolated as their campus seems. He says Northwestern, Michigan, Tufts, UMass-Amherst and Stanford all protested CIA on-campus recruitment. The Brown activists say a group of core activists "provide the spark" which move people to action.

"We get people aware, so aware that they can't not act," activist Jenny Goodman says. The intent of these core activists is to make fellow students personally feel each issue because, as Katz explains, "the more likely they are to become involved."

Thus they use these unique means of protest which have attracted so much criticism both from inside and outside the the campus community. McLoughlin says. "People are put off by style but they forget the substance. The substance is real."

"Self-interest is the guiding principle," of protest, Katz says. Chris Ferguson, an organizer of the suicide pill referendum goes further. He feels that protest "has to come from within," adding that he believes the activists' "creative protests" get people to understand the personal implication of an issue.

"Society dehumanizes people, we're not killing people but killing numbers," Ferguson says, Katz adds the force of a suicide protest which brings the issue of death to the fore will inform student's self-interest.

Rasied Eyebrows

Non-activist Brown students appreciate this type of protest. The suicide pill referendum, "raised eyebrows and got students interested in what is going on," Oliver Known says, Karen Berkelhamer adds, "It was a good statement, it really got the message across."

The CIA protest was not as well received Judy Goldfarb says. "The professors were stepping beyond the bounds of other people's rights."

But criticism as well as danger does not scare the intrepid protestors. Katz claims his and other activists' phones are being tapped by the CIA and that agents were spying on activists' meetings. The CIA also has a file on each of the activists, Katz says.

An agency spokesman would not completely deny the charges without knowing more facts but said she doubted it was the case because "it is not the job of the CIA to spy on U.S. citizens."

Such intrigue clouds the real mystery. Is Brown a harbinger of a return to activism on college campuses? Veteran activist McLoughlin is cautiosly optimistic, "activism picks up steam but it takes a while. The climate of the country has to change."

Another activist who wished to remain unnamed says, "what's going on at Brown is a groundswell, leaderless and structureless." He adds, "things happen spontaneously. In hallways around campus there are more and more conversations," about issues.

"Few people feel really strongly about issues, but when pressed everybody has an opinion," Goldfarb says. Other students feel people are too goal oriented to get involved with activism.

Ferguson says, "We apply our privelege of going to Brown in a different way. There was a time when higher education was a privelege, now is the time when use that prevelege to help the rest of society."