What is a “Student Issue”?
For the last couple of months I’ve been helping to facilitate a weekly Twitter discussion on student government called #sgachat. This week’s chat (details here) was on the “student issues” issue — the question of which topics are appropriate for student governments to take on. Should student governments confine themselves to working on “student issues” only, and if so, what is a student issue anyway?
The whole chat is well worth reading, but as I was looking it over I realized that my own contributions to it, posted from the @studentactivism Twitter account, added up to a sort of mini-essay, written in 140-character bursts. Not the most eloquent thing I’ve ever written, but for those who are interested in the subject, it may have some appeal, so here goes…
The whole chat is well worth reading, but as I was looking it over I realized that my own contributions to it, posted from the @studentactivism Twitter account, added up to a sort of mini-essay, written in 140-character bursts. Not the most eloquent thing I’ve ever written, but for those who are interested in the subject, it may have some appeal, so here goes…
The “student issue” debate has been around for 75+ years, and activists have answered it in a variety of interesting ways.
Most major student movements have arisen from students addressing big social issues through campus channels.
ROTC in NYC in 1930s. Free (political) speech at Berkeley 1964. Community relations Columbia 1968.
