Week 7 - Billy Chen

Billy Chen

ASA 2 Section 2

Week 7

“Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the Way for Campus Activism,” by Robby Cohen discussed and examined the early protests for civil rights and political movement of the 1960s on university campuses. More specifically, he wrote about UC Berkeley's Free Speech Movement and their issue with freedom of speech on campus. He brought up how students of that era stood up to campus authorities during a time of injustice. When Jack Weinberg, a former graduate student set up a table for donations on campus, he was immediately arrested. Only when thousands of students blocked the police car from moving by sitting in front of it for two days was action taken.

Usually, you would think that universities support this kind of thinking and action that students had towards the discrimination and hate of the civil right movement, but in this situation, it was totally different. Instead, the university used its power to shut them down the political activity. Even though most people today would deem this unacceptable from the university, I can see why the university wouldn't want protests on campus. They probably didn't want to show the media that the university is taking a side in the Civil Rights Movement and ruin their reputation as a place for education only.

The Berkeley Free Speech Movement was the first of its kind for on campus protest and rebellion and is now recognized as the start of students standing up to campus officials and regulations all over the United States. Many on campus protests have been all over the news, such as the UC Davis pepper spraying incident or the UC Irvine 11, and have had serious and negative outcomes, but show the heart and courage that many young people still have to share and voice their opinions about injustices.

Question: Why do campuses still use force and violence to stop students from protesting? Are students as woke in todays society compared to before?