Week 7- Brandon Choi

Brandon Choi
ASA A02
Week 7

In Robby Cohen’s “Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the way for campus activism,” students at the Berkeley began the continual stream of student protests and strikes on campuses around the country.Student politics rose as well with students fighting for their basic rights at university. After reading this account of what seems like the beginning of student politics, it almost seemed like a long dragged out war between student and administrators, deans, etc. It took a lot of time and effort but after Berkeley student activism wouldn't be what it is today. Living in America gives a great advantage in that we have the freedom to protest and speak so we can fight for the rights us students have. We are given the opportunity to fight for our rights as students freely and it is a powerful weapon at times, as shown from this article. This big push to me is like a model of student activism when it is done correctly and when it works. I thought this article was a unique look back into the beginnings of student activism, and felt that the beginnings was definitely a harsh beginning. The college shouldn't have been so hard to deal with in the first place in my opinion.  

Should school administrators and deans have the power and really the final say in things? Should the school be run by the students, like the government is ran by the people?

References:

Cohen, R. (1985). Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the Way for Campus Activism. OAH Magazine of History. Retrieved November 05, 2017.

“Get Ready for More Protests.” Survey Finds Nearly 1 in 10 Freshmen Plan on Participating in Campus Protests, www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/11/survey-finds-nearly-1-10-freshmen-plan-participating-campus-protests.