Yesterday my husband, who supervises student graphic designers at a university, took
The New York Times Magazine with him to school to share an article with his students. He thought the article, which featured campaign poster and button designs by several top graphic designers, would be a good subject of discussion and critique. He was quite surprised, though, when he realized that none of these students knew the names of the Democratic candidates, the subject of these designs. In fact, one student asked my husband if President Bush was running again next year.
I mentioned my husband's experience with his students on an Open Thread last night and asked the question, Will some of you youn'uns please tell me why your fellow students aren't better informed? One person replied, Graphic design students in 1968 probably thought JFK was running for a third term. This may be true. I'm sure there were a great many students at that time who were ill informed about current events. But it did seem that there was a heightened level of awareness and activism in the `60's and `70's that is not apparent on college campuses today. This discussion started me thinking about the `60's generation and I remembered something I haven't thought about in years. Do any of you old folks out there remember the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)?
SDS was a student activist organization founded in the early '60's to promote their vision of participatory democracy. I most remember them for their anti-war activities, like the 1965 demonstration in Washington D.C. that drew a crowd of about thirty thousand. Later, they sponsored a protest at Columbia University occupying campus buildings until it ended with the arrest of more than 700 protesters. While the original organization had pretty much disbanded by the time I entered college in 1970, their influence was still being felt in the anti-war movement that continued until 1975, when the Vietnam War ended.
What many of you may not know is that prior to SDS, there was a conservative student organization, called Young Americans for Freedom, that was quite active on college campuses in the 1950's. In the years following WWII, church attendance was increasing and the general U.S. population was quite conservative. Most students were supportive of traditional American values and institutions and did not question the decisions of their leaders. Sound familiar?
I'm thinking it is time, once again, for a new progressive student movement. The conditions are ripe and have an uncanny similarity to that time, so many years ago, when our nation was in desperate need of a course correction. Already there are progressive student organizations on many campuses across the country. Wrench, an Oregon student group, was instrumental in organizing anti-war protests prior to the war in Iraq and at some universities there still exists a remnant of SDS called the Progressive Student Network (PSN).
With the Internet, nationwide organizing should be a breeze. Of course, at the moment, students seem to be overwhelmingly complacent and oblivious. But as we have seen lately, history has a way of repeating itself. As civil liberties continue to erode and the war in Iraq rages on, I believe that university students will wake up in greater numbers and once again find their progressive voices.
If you're interested in student activism of the `60's check out the following:
- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
- Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
- Berkeley Free Speech Movement
- Black Student League
- Progressive Student Network (PSN)