What are campuses for?
As many of you know, I am the parent of an 18-year old, and I have watched them grapple with how to speak up against the genocide in Gaza while attending a predominantly white institution with unspoken, but clearly understood, rules about what is and what isn’t acceptable. PWIs implicitly silence students, especially students of color who already feel their presence in these institutions is fragile at best and unwelcome at worst. I understand what it means for these students to speak up, what is at stake for them and how important it is to protect them.
That’s why I have been so inspired by the courage and conviction of students at Columbia University and around the country. I was 20 years old when I came to New York City to attend Teachers College, Columbia University, and more than two decades later, I completed my doctorate in Politics and Education at a powerful commencement ceremony on the very lawn that is the protest site today.
Last year, I was invited to give the Charo Uceda lecture at my alma mater. In the speech, I criticized an approach to teaching reading and writing that has since been discontinued but was successfully promoted for decades. Here’s an excerpt from my remarks: “Our institutions – schools, universities, banks, workplaces, and definitely government – are not designed to work for people like me. We are expected to be transformed by these places, not to transform them.”
I hope that these protests move us toward a ceasefire, and to paying attention to young voters in the short term. These are not small things. But I also hope they rekindle that 20-year-old in us, the one who would take risks more easily, who could see that our goal should be to change the system, not to let the system change us.
Onward,
Sayu