OPINION: College protests must set clear goals


Emilie Skoog | Daily Trojan

USC is not nationally known for its culture of student activism, yet in recent years it has joined other campuses around the nation in hosting a new wave of student demonstrations. These protests vary in topic from combating institutional racism to opposing President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration.

Across the nation, students feel empowered like never before: marching, giving inspirational speeches, making snarky signs and sharing it all on social media. Change seems to hang in the air as the protests are happening. But then, the protest is over and everyone packs up and goes home. Every now and then at some colleges, a university official or two is fired or a building is renamed, but core issues in terms of policies and who is representing us on the state and national levels remain the same.

All of which is to say, it is often difficult to figure out the true, institutional efficacy of a protest. If student advocates truly want to make a difference at USC and other campuses worldwide, they must have a good understanding of how to organize effective and persuasive demonstrations that spur tangible change.

The first step for would-be demonstrators is to settle on a goal. Student movements often have a variety of interrelated, yet distinct aspirations. Some are quite limited in scope. For example, earlier this year at Yale University, students petitioned specifically for the re-naming of a campus residence college named for former Vice President John C. Calhoun — an avowed white supremacist and pro-slavery advocate.

If a protest has one specific aspiration, the demonstrations’ effects are pretty straight-forward and measured. In the case of Yale, the university relented after some time and changed the name — an unequivocal win for the students who launched the protest.

However, protest movements are rarely so clear-cut. Often demonstrations are made up of people advocating for a variety of issues rather than a singular goal. This could be seen at the Women’s March — attended by a number of USC students — in Los Angeles and around the country, which began as a feminist rally, only to end up representing a whole host of progressive concerns. Demonstrations that demand broader change are often more difficult to measure in terms of direct effect.  

Beyond measuring a movement’s effectiveness in terms of the changes that it makes, it’s also important to consider how a protest can be advanced into the next steps. Looking to successful national protests can give student advocates the tools to organize more long-lasting, effective protests. Researchers and sociologists have identified a few key qualities that all rewarding demonstrations have in common.

A first rule among sociologists is to craft a powerful message that resonates with the public. For a social movement to be fruitful, it has to grab the attention of the population at large, rather than just niche groups. In an interview with Vox, University of Pennsylvania sociologist Daniel Q. Gillion found that on average, every time politicians become informed of 10 protest events happening in their district, they become 1 percent more likely to support a bill that favors a protester’s position. In essence, the longer a protest lasts and the more relevant its message, the more likely people in power are to respond.      

A second but no less important rule is a commitment to nonviolence. The point of protest is to pressure those in power to impact change and gain support from the wider population. If the movement is viewed as overtly violent, many in the public will oppose it. Indeed, Stanford sociologist and researcher Rob Willer told The Atlantic that radical protests spur a “disidentification effect” on bystanders, causing them to disassociate with the marchers and view their complaints as illegitimate.

In addition, Gillion argues that violence plays right into the hands of the enemies of the protest. He contends that “protest can embolden politicians to stay the course, and conservative politicians like Trump might be emboldened.” A whole right-wing media ecosystem exists waiting to weaponize any slip-ups on liberal-leaning demonstrators’ part against them.   

Ultimately, members of any movement must have a big picture in mind. While reactive, organic protests are all the rage, real change requires organizers to plan ahead. They have to pick their battles and effectively channel the public sentiment in the right direction. In a piece in The New Yorker, Nathan Heller writes that the civil rights movement was a “masterpiece of control and logistics.” To gain traction during the bus boycotts, organizers “bided their time, structuring, and planning what amounted to a work of public theatre” centering on Rosa Parks and the court case Browder v. Gayle. Parks was vetted by the organizers beforehand to withstand the media spotlight she would face. The result of their deliberateness was a roaring success — Parks was portrayed sympathetically on television and segregation on buses was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.     

All and all, in this time of upheaval and unrest, student activists can play a decisive role in shaping the national conversation — that is, if they learn from the past.

1 reply
  1. b juardo
    b juardo says:

    I think you brash college students should work a job/career, pay bills, get into real relationships, not hookups, and stop fixating on your smartphone or social media, for at least a decade after leaving college. In other words, enter the real world; gain real world experience, wisdom before you pontificate what’s right for society. Then, decide if you want to play social justice warrior, spew white-guilt rhetoric, etc. I know you want to feel relevant and feel more alive since you’re young. But like the saying goes, you’re young, dumb, and full of….Yeah.

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