The Student Activist: Rebooted

Meet the new face of student activism.

The shape of student activism is changing, so if you are looking to find activist action on your campus, it might not look like you expect it to.

Perhaps you expect politically engaged students to look and behave a certain way. Are you imagining thrift shop clothes wearing, picket sign toting, protest marching hippies? Or maybe you envision clean cut students campaigning for local politicians.

These traditional types of political engagement still have a presence on campuses. However, as the postsecondary environment has changed, so too has the shape of student engagement.

Today’s youth can raise their voice in the classroom environment

One of the least recognized ways students engage politically is in their classes. It is a testament to the success of past and present student activism that progressive and radical ideas are continually filtered into university materials. Weekly readings, courses and even entire programs are dedicated to discussing issues that were once relegated to alternative coffee shops and radical bookstores.

Women’s Studies, for instance, is now a staple at most Canadian universities, while social issue focused programs like Brock University’s MA in Social Justice and Equity Studies are cropping up across the country. In such courses and programs, students can engage seriously with the pertinent issues of the day.

Student engagement is even more pronounced in the growing trend of Service Learning courses or course components. This style of education is dedicated to hands-on learning, whereby students move out of their classrooms in order to work on the social issues in their communities.

So called “Slacktivists” are highly active in boycotts and buycotts

Outside of classroom hours students continue to behave in decidedly political ways. There is a misconception that legitimate political activity can only happen on election day, or in mass protests directed toward the state. Students of today demonstrate the fallacy of this line of thought. For instance, as corporations have evolved into powerful global actors, and the effectiveness of the state is called into question, more and more student activism is directed toward the corporate sphere.

Boycotts have been a particularly popular way of combating perceived social and environmental injustices. Student boycotters have withheld their business from campus bookstores, clothing manufacturers, Pepsi, and Coca-Cola, to name a few targets, demanding that the boycotted company change its business practices. Even more pervasive than boycotts is the buycott, whereby students seek out ethical products for purchase. No Sweat, Organic, and Fair Trade are just a few of the ethical purchasing certifications many students are looking out for on their consumer products. By interacting with the corporate sphere in such ways, students are undeniably working toward political change.

Today, activist groups use online news and blogs to spread their message

Another popular technique for effecting political change is using the internet. By now most of us have heard internet activism described as ‘slacktivism’, but the internet can serve social and environmental justice causes effectively, and in a multitude of ways. It is an invaluable resource for spreading awareness about political issues, for movement organization, and for tangible action. For example, students browse online for alternative news sources and information, create activist groups and events on Facebook, and circulate online petitions widely.

In 2009, Iranian students employed their Twitter accounts to effectively fuel protest sentiments and action. And yet, while this new mode of engagement is explicitly political, it is all too often discredited or ignored in popular discussions of student activism.

There are questions to be asked about these and the many other new forms of student activism: Do they represent real substitutes for traditional forms of political engagement? Can all students participate in them equally? And even accounting for these new forms of engagement, is student activism still on the decline?

Yet even as we evaluate their potential shortcomings, we ought to be proud of these new and creative ways our generation is getting involved.

And if you are looking for ways to be politically active at your school, take heart that there is no shortage of opportunities. That is, if you are willing to think outside of the ballot box.