Following months of student and faculty demonstrations, University of Missouri president Timothy M. Wolfe recently resigned, and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin agreed to step down to a less prominent position.
The protests were held to address ongoing racism, particularly against the student body president, who is black. Following the resignations, the university announced new initiatives to address discrimination on campus. White House press secretary Josh Earnest praised the students, saying, “A few people speaking up and speaking out can have a profound impact.”
On Missouri’s heels came Ithaca College this week. Students and faculty with the school’s People of Color organized a solidarity walkout to protest racial insensitivity on the campus. Despite student demands, university president Tom Rochon has not stepped down but is working with other administrators to address the school’s racially charged incidents.
But Mizzou and Ithaca are certainly not the first schools to take action against perceived unfair treatment and discrimination. In fact, America has a long history of powerful student walkouts. Let’s go back in time to see just how much impact they’ve had over the years.
Columbia University, 1968
Columbia University students and community supporters held a weeklong, nonviolent occupation of campus buildings to convince the university to cut its ties to research for the Vietnam War. Negotiations failed, police were called to end the occupation, and more than 700 were arrested.
In the wake of Columbia’s protest, students on campuses in Paris, Tokyo, Mexico City and around the world and country took to the streets in similar fashion.
East Los Angeles Walkouts, 1968
In 1968, Chicano students in Los Angeles protested unequal conditions in the city’s high schools. The students were driven by the poor quality and conditions of their education, but they also wanted to raise awareness of the high minority death toll in the Vietnam War.
The school board took notice of these students and improved treatment for them. Future students took their lead from the “Chicano Blowouts.” In 1994, students walked out against California Proposition 187. In 2006, they opposed H.R. 4437. In 2007, the walkouts supported the proposed Cesar Chavez holiday (Chavez is pictured here).
University of California, Berkeley, 1969
When University of California, Berkeley students, inspired by Anti-Authoritarian movements and the Vietnam War, occupied a piece of university property known as People’s Park to demonstrate, they drew a quick response from the right wing.
Republican Governor Ronald Reagan ordered the area cordoned off, despite the protests of nearly 6,000 students and community members, to show the state that he would clean up the undisciplined college environment.
Protesters revolted, and police retaliated with shotguns and tear gas. One bystander was killed, another blinded, and 123 people were hospitalized. Gov. Reagan banned public assembly, and the town was overtaken by armed soldiers.
Memorial services and assemblies followed “Bloody Thursday.” Faculty showed solidarity with students, and ultimately the park became the centerpiece of the university’s experiment in community-generated design.
Harvard, 1969
On behalf of their generation, Harvard students came together and took over University Hall, boycotting classes for more than one week. Their demands: End Harvard’s complicity in the Vietnam War, stop evictions of working-class people from properties the university wanted to develop, and create a black studies program.
Kent State University, 1970
Four students were killed and nine others injured during the 1970 shootings at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. Students were protesting President Nixon’s Cambodian Campaign, another fateful step in the already contentious Vietnam War.
Immediately following the shootings, students threatened to attack the National Guard in retaliation. They were talked down by faculty members, particularly geology professor Glenn Frank, who pleaded with them to end the violence.
The nation showed its support for the murdered Kent State students. Hundreds of high schools, colleges and universities across the U.S. shut down — effecting a student strike of 4 million students in all.
Boston University, 1979
Students and professors of Boston University held a nine-day strike in support of the 800 clerical workers and 20 librarians that the institution recognize their union. Classes resumed, but outdoors and off campus so the picket lines would not be crossed.
Columbia University, 1984
Columbia University students and faculty held anti-apartheid demonstrations to protest the university’s investments in South Africa. After its yearlong campaign, Columbia divested bonds and financial institutions directly involved with the South African regime.
Harvard, 2001
Nearly 50 students locked themselves inside Harvard’s Massachusetts Hall, near the offices of the university’s president and administrators, for a three-week sit-in. The demonstration, in protest of Harvard’s poverty wages for the school’s janitors and dining hall workers, drew support from thousands of daily picketers, hundreds of campus workers, mock sit-ins at New York’s Harvard Club and the endorsement of four U.S. senators.
The university agreed to create a committee with faculty, administrators, students and workers to renegotiate the workers’ union’s contract. Undergrads who participated were put on disciplinary probation, but the union workers enjoyed a pay increase that put them above the Cambridge living wage level.
Princeton University, 2003
Many Princeton students wanted the world to know that not all of the university was against U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq. Student activists from the Princeton Committee Against Terrorism rallied support for the troops. Their demonstrations were countered by protests from anti-war activists who tried to shout them down. The groups opposed each other but were united in their efforts to explore in depth the global issues affecting the world around them.
UC Berkeley, Sept. to Dec. 2009
University of California, Berkeley has a reputation for holding peaceful protests that get results. In 2009, students and faculty kicked off another series of walkouts and demonstrations to protest sevice cuts, layoffs and a proposed 32 percent tuition increase at 10 UC campuses across the state.
The protests continued through the end of 2009 and were followed by the March 2010 National Day of Action. The result? UC tuition remained frozen for the next three years!
UCLA, March 2010
On March 4, 2010, UCLA demonstrators were joined by thousands of students and educators from elementary, middle and high schools and other colleges and universities across California to protest nationwide education funding cuts and rising tuition with rallies, marches and class walkouts.
Students within the university system of California saw an increase of 61 percent over a five-year-period… a big change from the pre-1978 era of tuition-free education for all high school graduates wishing to attend California community colleges.
UCLA Denim Day, every April
In 1999, the Italian Supreme Court overturned a rape conviction because the victim was wearing tight jeans when she was assaulted. The court ruled that the woman must have helped her attacker remove the jeans, and that implied consent.
Today, “Denim Day” is an international annual event that promotes awareness and that protests misguided attitudes about sexual violence. UCLA is just one of many institutions around the world that host the campaign.
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