By
Ryan Gabrielson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Student involvement, activism gets bigger scope
About five minutes after the protest was supposed to begin, in front of a small, poorly maintained strip of buildings lining up along Broadway Blvd., a string of protesters are making signs.
The Aug. 15 late-afternoon sun is setting at their backs as they protest the corporate world in bright marker colors on posterboard. A large number of them - though at the beginning of the protest there are barely a dozen - represent the Tucson Green Party.
Signs supporting Green Party candidate Ralph Nader are abundant, but have only been borrowed, since they are too costly to distribute freely.
The mad sound of honking car horns clear out any chanting as passerby in cars speed along Broadway Blvd.
Word is spreading that a University of Arizona student has been arrested at the protests taking place at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.
But this demonstration is not charged with fear and isn't even meant to draw attention to a cause.
While many of them are against the policies of both major political parties -the protest itself taking place in front of the Tucson Democratic Party Headquarters - this demonstration aims to bring attention to another demonstration.
Downtown Los Angeles played host to the Democratic National Convention, and was packed with about 15,000 demonstrators pushing a variety of causes from Aug. 14-17.
The Tucson protesters say they are demonstrating "in sympathy" to those activists who are not receiving the media coverage they think they deserve, said Ari Anand, a UA sociology graduate student.
The demonstration to raise awareness of another demonstration grows slowly and finally attracts about 25 people, including a representative from the Tucson Democratic Headquarters who brings the demonstrators Diet Pepsi, then joins them while holding an American flag and a Gore 2000 sign.
Robert Johnson, who works at the headquarters, called the protesters "yogurt and granola" liberals who are indirectly working to elect Republican nominee George W. Bush by taking votes away from Al Gore, the Democrats' nominee.
During several recent large-scale national demonstrations - including the World Trade Organization protest in December - southern Arizona activists have organized their own events.
These demonstrations have attracted upwards of 100 people, many of whom are students.
The types of issues that students have taken on today have evolved from the protests of years past, which involved causes - like civil rights - that directly affected students' lives.
Today's issues, however, are less tangible for a college student living in a dorm room, said Karen Anderson, UA history professor who has researched social issues.
The current incarnation of student activism is less focused than its civil rights and anti-war predecessors, said Andrew Silverman, UA law professor.
The art of the Protest, it seems, is going global.
The world's natural resources, economy and labor conditions have replaced the anti-war movement as a source of student protest. Activists produce Listservs and Web sites devoted to their causes.
. In Seattle, during December's World Trade Organization protest and riot, activists trashed Starbucks coffee shops and broke windows in Nike stores. They blocked streets and delayed the meeting of world economic leaders.
The forces of capitalism are now targeted by protesters, and college campuses have proved to be a breeding ground for the anti-corporation sentiment.
"It's partially being young and energized," said Silverman, a member of the UA Human Rights and Labor Task Force. "Protest and activism tends to rise on college campuses."
The anti-globalization movement is an umbrella that covers several large issues, Silverman said. The environment, anti-corporation sentiment and worker rights all fall into anti-globalization.
Globalization itself is the connecting of the world through economic ties, and is promoted and fostered by the World Trade Organization.
Many demonstrators argue that the desire to increase free trade leads nations to ignore environmental issues and human rights.
"Some of it comes from students seeing a problem," Silverman said. "Many young people have a spirit of change and revolution in them."
More flexible schedules with fewer financial and familial burdens may be what allows students to organize and affect some issues, Anderson said.
Anderson said the desire to change policy and bring social change is, for some students, a "stage in the life cycle."
Ben Graff, Associated Students president, said he thinks student involvement improves the university.
"I think that is what ASUA is all about," Graff said. "Student activism has made a very strong difference on campus when administration needed a little push."
This was evidenced in the 1960s, during a UA basketball game against Brigham Young University. Several UA students walked onto the court, effectively stopping the game, recalled Charles Ares, dean of the UA College of Law from 1966 to 1973.
At that point, BYU had never had a black player on their basketball team and so UA students organized a protest to take place inside on the court and outside the complex.
"Things were close to getting out of hand," said Ares, who is still a law professor at the UA. "It's a tribute to how people can lose their (ability to) reason."
There were several anti-Vietnam war protests on the UA campus, and some turned violent, Silverman said.
On some campuses, like Kent State University in Ohio, demonstrations turned tragic when students were killed.
"There was a great deal of unrest," Ares said. "This campus was less violent than lots of places."
Student activists and administrators clashed on many occasions, Ares added. At times, the administration contested students' right to distribute pamphlets on the campus. The use of intimidation tactics was popular for administrators during the period, Ares added.
These tactics included taking pictures of students who handed out pamphlets, then accusing those students of any suspicious vandalism, Ares said.
"There was foolish conduct (by students) and foolish overreaction by the establishment," he said. "There was simply a genuine concern that was misguided."
Faculty has also played a role in student activism throughout the years. Some professors actually joined protests and some played behind-the-scenes roles, Anderson said.
Good place to include more info about Silverman?
"There was grade inflation as professors tried to keep young men out of the war," she said.
While there are no statistics to prove this took place, Anderson said that it may have kept many students from flunking out of college and, in turn, kept them out of the military.
"Since the Vietnam days, (student) activism was in a pretty low key," Silverman said.
The 1950s and 1960s were "exciting" decades because of the massive changes that took place in civil rights, Silverman said.
Today's major issues, including workers' rights and the environment, may have little effect on the day-to-day lives of students, but protests during past decades "contained an element of self interest," Anderson said.
Those students were going for more direct social change that they could see taking place, Anderson said.
The connection that today's student activists have to their issues is less obvious than it was a few decades ago, she added.
Many activists today are concerned with factories where workers are allegedly being abused. These factories are, in some cases, on a different continent.
Others are worried by the destruction of the atmosphere, which is taking place a mile above the earth.
The evolution of issues has produced large and sometimes scattered movements, Silverman said.
"It (activism) could go in a lot of directions," he added.
Anderson said she sees few differences in the students leading today's movements, although activists of today are "better dressed and better mannered."
But Ares said today's protesters aren't as visible.
"I don't see much of them at all," he said.
New forms of protest are beginning to surface, including street theater. Artists create masks and sets and stage skits during demonstrations. This tactic was used by protesters at the Democratic National Convention, and also by Tucson activists during a World Bank demonstration in April..
"We may see virtual protests," Silverman said, as the Internet becomes an even more prevalent tool. "It just has a lot of aspects."
Other groups, like the UA Libertarians are attempting to expedite their method of protest while pushing their issue in front of the public.
They held protests such as the Million Marijuana March in May 1999, where they argued for marijuana legalization.
"We're trying to have fun, too," said Rob Peters, president of the UA Libertarians. "Freedom is really the key word for us."
