Engaging with Democracy?
Editorial
Issue date: 10/8/04 Section: Opinion
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First there was the protest at the fountain before Senate's first meeting on Aug. 31. Next was the vocal dismay with the administration after word got out that Dr. Angela Gulielmetti's contract wouldn't be renewed. Now, with arrests by the Conway Police Department on our campus and plenty of presidential campaign fodder to go around, Hendrix students have already had plenty to shout about.
Apathy is a perennial issue among students and the issue almost always finds its way into this newspaper in one way or another. But after only about a month into the semester, are students finding that activism and involvement actually mean something?
President Cloyd spoke at last week's Senate meeting on Sept. 28 to offer students a more complete explanation of why Gulielmetti is being forced to leave the College as early as next year, and it's hardly a stretch to say he took notice because of the quick response among students. It is impossible to know whether or not the College ever foresaw the issue becoming as central as it did to the select group of students who took interest and let everyone else know, but one thing is clear: these students were able to get answers from the administration.
And faculty who have been at Hendrix for any length of time like to point to one of the best examples of swift student activism in recent history: pressing the College to disinvest the endowment from companies doing business during apartheid in South Africa in the late 1980s. Students mobilized, voiced their concerns and opinions to the administration, and action was taken. Other smaller examples abound, even in the past few years, like Senate's resolution against adopting a plus/minus grading system during the 2002-2003 school year. And this year, Senate is finally addressing through the Alcohol Policy Review Committee something that's been on the minds of students for years.
Do you notice a pattern? When students actually take the time to organize, more often than not the administration responds. What was thought to be static begins to change.
It's easy to see Hendrix as a place where no single group of students can make a sustainable difference- we're gone in four years, after all, but the administration remains. But at least the pattern this year has been just the opposite. Maybe election years naturally encourage more involvement in what's going on, but, regardless, the interest students have taken in their own lives at the College has essentially been several big steps in the right direction.
Not to sound too clichÈ, but in an era of Patriot Acts, presidents who weren't really ever elected by the people, and wars that make little sense, the student activism demonstrated in the last few weeks isn't just good for the College, it's good for society and democracy. Onward!
Apathy is a perennial issue among students and the issue almost always finds its way into this newspaper in one way or another. But after only about a month into the semester, are students finding that activism and involvement actually mean something?
President Cloyd spoke at last week's Senate meeting on Sept. 28 to offer students a more complete explanation of why Gulielmetti is being forced to leave the College as early as next year, and it's hardly a stretch to say he took notice because of the quick response among students. It is impossible to know whether or not the College ever foresaw the issue becoming as central as it did to the select group of students who took interest and let everyone else know, but one thing is clear: these students were able to get answers from the administration.
And faculty who have been at Hendrix for any length of time like to point to one of the best examples of swift student activism in recent history: pressing the College to disinvest the endowment from companies doing business during apartheid in South Africa in the late 1980s. Students mobilized, voiced their concerns and opinions to the administration, and action was taken. Other smaller examples abound, even in the past few years, like Senate's resolution against adopting a plus/minus grading system during the 2002-2003 school year. And this year, Senate is finally addressing through the Alcohol Policy Review Committee something that's been on the minds of students for years.
Do you notice a pattern? When students actually take the time to organize, more often than not the administration responds. What was thought to be static begins to change.
It's easy to see Hendrix as a place where no single group of students can make a sustainable difference- we're gone in four years, after all, but the administration remains. But at least the pattern this year has been just the opposite. Maybe election years naturally encourage more involvement in what's going on, but, regardless, the interest students have taken in their own lives at the College has essentially been several big steps in the right direction.
Not to sound too clichÈ, but in an era of Patriot Acts, presidents who weren't really ever elected by the people, and wars that make little sense, the student activism demonstrated in the last few weeks isn't just good for the College, it's good for society and democracy. Onward!