Leaders Discuss Student Activism

Past and present student leaders debated the reasons for dwindling activism on college campuses at a panel discussion held Saturday in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics (IOP).

The panel focused on what they termed a shift from emotionally-charged individual activism in the 1960s to a more institutionally-based activism of the 90s.

Because the correct moral position on issues such as segregation and the Vietnam War was so overwhelming and obvious to them, activists of the '60s could "throw themselves into the events with abandon," according to Hendrik Hertzberg '65 of the New Republic.

"The method of activism we used in the '60s was confrontation, anger, and violence," said IOP Fellow George Gorton. "Maybe the activists of my generation needed to get a hold of themselves. Though we had the idealism, maybe our methods weren't that good."

Public Service Professor of Electoral Politics Shirley V. Williams said the intensity of such past activism is hard to find at universities today.

"One doesn't see the same kind of energy, one doesn't see the same kind of anger," Williams said. "In the '60s, people believed that the political process could be changed only if it was seized."

Most of the panelists agreed that institutions have superseded loosely-formed groups of individuals as the channels of expression for many would-be activists today.

Hertzberg said institutions that from the basis for today's activism were either nonexistent or viewed with skepticism by students 25 years ago.

For example, he said, most Harvard students viewed Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) as a "lady-bountiful" organization. In addition, he said, no Black student organization existed at Harvard until 1965.

Hertzberg said his generation believed "we would never solve our problems by volunteerism and tutoring kids. It had to be done on a mass basis."

Art A. Hall '93, president of the Black Students Association, said that students today tend to work more within the system in order to bring out "the faults and inconsistencies in the concept of democracy."

"A lot of activism today is centered on going back and helping the community to invoke a feeling of pride," Hall said.

Kimberly D. Harris '93, chair of the IOP's student advisory committee, noted that while most undergraduates today have never participated in a protest, the number of student organizations has increased from 70 to 236 since the '60s.

Another reason for the lack of individual activism, Harris said, is that students are simply more interested in planning their careers than having an impact on social problems.