Student activism needed

With the incoming class of 2017, on-campus political advocacy can be more effective than ever before, bringing new enthusiasm and vigor to student movements, which saw effective gains in the last semester.

The USC student population is already actively engaged by ongoing events, both local and national. A rather popular protest emerged in early May as a response to alleged racial profiling on behalf of the Los Angeles Police Department in disbanding a party attended by many black students and the ensuing arrests. On May 7, gatherings of concerned and affected students resulted in a packed meeting of over 750 students with LAPD officials in the Tutor Campus Center.

This is the sort of involvement that provides USC with a dynamic environment. Among other things, it encourages a consistent dialogue between the students and staff. In the past year or so, voter registration efforts on campus were moderately successful in bringing new voters into the fold, but different strategies will be needed in a year without a major national election. Moving into this next school year, it is up to the newest members of the Trojan Family to add the energy and vitality to student activism that is so critical.

Student voices from all sides are important for political activism in a university sandwiched in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States, let alone the world. Without the presence of our student leaders, the interchange of new ideas and modes of thinking that characterizes a major university would be absent.

In this vibrant university atmosphere, nearly a dozen political organizations, for nearly every cause under the sun, regularly call for greater changes in student life. Perhaps these organizations offer something to new students one thing that USChange and others could not: an organized, strategic conduit for reform.

In this way, students will be more than able to advocate making their experience at USC the best it can possibly be. Organizations such as the Political Student Assembly keep daily issues at the forefront by focusing them into debates; in fact, they will host a debate in the first week of September about USC’s security policies, something which surely affects every student every day. This debate is just a small example of a multitude of events hosted specifically with student expression in mind.

This also begs the question as to how these organizations and a new freshman class will react to a federal investigation of USC’s sexual harassment policies. Even though the news first broke in July, and university staff responded to it appropriately, the actual investigation could very well end during the school year. The attention and change that a seven-member group from the Student Coalition Against Rape (SCAR) discovered during the summer would reach critical mass, as its message resonates with new students shocked to hear such allegations.

While this is speculative, the importance of every new freshman class to political causes on campus is not. These clubs look every year for new people to get involved, in order to gain a new influx of creativity, energy, ideas and passion. With so many choices available, the Class of 2017 is vested with the ability to shape the future of our university, not just for themselves, but for future generations of students. Who knows? Any number of future political leaders could get their start in student political advocacy.

Despite USC’s reputation as a conservative campus, student protests have been strong since the 1960s, and many varying in scope: a 2011 protest against sexual violence resulted in a university-wide overhaul of its safety regulations. Though not as wide in scope, protests in front of Tommy Trojan last year about civilian deaths in Israel and Palestine left students to decide for themselves who was in the right. The proof of the necessity of political activism to these new students lies in the diversity of causes that drive USC’s students: If there’s something we care deeply about that affects other people, chances are we can find others who think in the same way.

What many of these political organizations at USC need is a new breed of dedicated, concerned students who will actively engage themselves as citizens. Only then can the incoming group of freshmen continue the widespread student involvement we witnessed at the end of the last school year, and adapt to new causes that might arise. One can only hope that they will act to institute change at USC with the same fervor and aplomb that we see at the Coliseum.

Jack Merritt is a sophomore majoring in history.