The College Fix

The sad, exhausted quality of college protests

Ho-hum, this again: At Howard University, students recently “occupied” another administration building, issuing a set of demands including the requisite calls for resignations and firings, all as part of an effort to “resist.” The word “systemic” was dutifully employed; the university itself issued a desultory proclamation of support, as universities are wont to do when students squat en masse on university property. Et cetera.

In truth, this is one instance where the protesters in question were actually spurred by a worthwhile cause: The university had been evasive and secretive about a financial aid scandal that resulted in the firing of several employees. Schools should be as transparent as possible, whenever possible, and in this instance Howard clearly dropped the ball.

But of course that’s not what this protest has become: Rather than a straightforward demand for accountability and institutional honesty, protesters have demanded a comical, tiresome laundry list of campus progressive grievances. It seems like there is no university protest that does not quickly morph into a smorgasbord of wildly divergent and unrelated demands. At Howard, activists are demanding that the campus fight “rape culture,” that they institute a “grievance system” to protest students with “marginalized identities,” that campus police be stripped of firearms, that students be given veto power over the Board of Trustees. What any of this has to do with a transparency scandal, much less an “occupation,” is deeply unclear.

There is something so profoundly weary about this sort of thing. One gets the sensation, looking at this type of protest, that its participants are simply going through the motions, checking off a series of boxes they feel duty-bound to check: Say something about rape, toss in a transgender issue or two, be sure to include the words “trauma” and “safe” and “self-care.” It’s a script, and a genuinely predictable one at that.

A gentle word of advice for campus protesters: Stick to the message. Pick a battle and fight it; don’t assume that you have to make every protest about everything every time. It’s just not necessary. The great ideological battles of the past have usually been won by focusing on a single issue; the movements that have strayed too far from a central purpose almost always fracture and disintegrate. You deserve honesty and accountability from your university; demand it. And if next week you want to agitate for a “grievance system,” you can occupy the d-hall then.

MORE: Cornell rewards hundreds of squatters who occupy building

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