Archived Edition: March 08, 2006 | Back to Current	Sep 03, 2010

Does anyone care?
Alan Cordova - Staff Writer

Is activism at Williams dead? The question may seem naïve, but it highlights the fact that though Williams students remain relatively informed about world events, we are increasingly unwilling to go beyond reading about a problem and involve ourselves in working towards a solution. This complacency has quelled once-burning fires of student engagement, and created the false perception that it is extremely difficult to make an impact in the public sphere. Fortunately, while student activism is dying, it is not too late to save it.

Not too long ago, groups organized call-ins and trips to Washington, D.C., protests. We had two competing political journals, Scattershot and the International Justice Journal, publishing well-researched essay-length articles written primarily by students. The College hosted a national student conference on global AIDS. Today, there are still powerful lectures and lively discussions, but the atmosphere of student engagement has been largely replaced by the sentiment that students lack the power to change the status quo.

What happened? The answer is complex. First, the demolition of Baxter eliminated the mailroom, the only centralized place attended by enough students on a daily basis to make tabling campaigns effective. Unlike e-mail appeals, tabling is the best way to recruit, because students can ask questions and decide if the organization is right for them. Those who do join through tabling are more likely to participate. Without a public forum, campus groups have spread apart. Fortunately, the upcoming opening of the Paresky Center should address this problem

Second, it has taken the progressive community a long time to recover from its disillusionment following major culminations of activity, such as the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and the 2004 presidential election. This “outrage fatigue,” as The Onion once incisively observed, caused by the overwhelming multitude of perceived injustices, has created monumental disincentives for progressive activists. The phenomenon, both at Williams and across the country, makes it more difficult to target particular issues and promote alternative strategies or policies, as there always seem to be newer and greater injustices to focus on. The way out of this dilemma is far more complex than simply constructing a new building; it will require significant soul-searching and mobilizing around particular issues.

Third, the College has suffered from the wave of student apathy and disengagement that has swept the nation. As uncompetitive CC elections and decreasing voting rates illustrate, Williams students have become less willing to work through existing political institutions to achieve change, preferring to live with the status quo, even if it means tolerating unfavorable outcomes. Effective student engagement rises above simply voicing one’s opinion – in order to achieve real change students must clearly articulate their vision and follow through with an effective public campaign. It is not enough to simply oppose something, as the failure of Anchors Away demonstrated. In order to realize an objective, viable alternative solutions to the problems must be developed. It is easy to complain about something, but change requires working towards solutions.

The effect of the dwindling levels of students’ political engagement has been dramatic. Take, for example, the reaction by Williams students to three humanitarian crises that have struck in the past 18 months: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Kashmir earthquake and the Darfur genocide.

While the Hurricane Relief Coalition has proven extremely effective at spreading awareness and mobilizing ongoing support, the group has, unfortunately, been more the exception than the rule for the College’s response to humanitarian crises. The HRC’s dedication has paid off, with thousands of dollars fundraised, hundreds of students attending at least one event, and fifty volunteers spending their spring breaks helping rebuild Biloxi and New Orleans. However, it has dwarfed our response to the other disasters, despite the fact that, compared with the hurricanes, approximately 60 and 100 times the number of deaths have occurred in Kashmir and Darfur, respectively.

It must be incumbent on a student body as talented and globally aware as that of Williams to not stand idly as these catastrophes unfold. Although some action has been taken, such as a campaign to divest from companies operating in Sudan and a series of fundraisers for Pakistani relief operations, the student body has not supported the pertinent coalitions with the levels of participation and enthusiasm that have made the HRC so successful. Humanitarian tragedies must be more than items in the daily newspaper; they should serve as catalysts for mobilization for change.

What can be done about this? We need to realize that we can accomplish significant change even from the relative isolation of the northern Berkshires. Political activism can be as easy as writing letters to the editor of a paper, which, due to students’ superlative eloquence, tend to get published. Lobbying Congress can be undertaken 30 minutes away at Representative John Olver’s Pittsfield office. Every week, there are conferences to attend, campaigns to join, and opportunities to participate in articulating the highly underrepresented voice of American college students. The College offers an immense wealth of resources for student organizing, from travel and lecture funds to professors with years of experience. So when you’re finished reading the Record, get your friends together, talk about what matters most to them, and start a group dedicated to working on it. You never know what you’ll accomplish!



Alan Cordova ’06 is a political science and astronomy major from Mercer Island, Wash.