Word: activists
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Harvard protesters have lost sight of the prize--divestment--and instead have been mesmerized by the University's picayune bureaucratic processes. The Committee on University Practices--a little activist group which proudly calls itself "Coup" much the same way Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt labelled himself "important"--displays this misguidedness in all its splendor. Last year Coup demanded that Harvard reduce the 50-year rule on its secret records. This year Coup held a contest to name Harvard's most "inaccessible administrator." If the University doesn't come around these radical activists may roll up their sleeves, put up their dukes...
...willingness to focus on the issues of governance and process has stripped the divestment movement of any of its force. Last weekend's protest--both inside and outside 17 Quincy--were a painful demonstration of the activists' impotence. In the meeting, "insurgent" Overseers spent as much time arguing about Robert's Rules of Order as about South African investments. Outside, protesters listened to speakers: one from the African National Congress, a former state representative and an erstwhile activist who favors army surplus clothing and an earring. None of the Overseers took special notice of the protest, which has become...
...make no mistake about it, if campus activists continue to play Harvard's governance game, they will never force the University to do anything. Take the Corporation-Undergraduate Council meeting, for example. Activists like Rob Weissman worried about getting an "activist representative" included in the group which met with Harvard's governing body--instead of thinking of ways to convince the Corporation of the errors of its ways. Protesters are no longer bringing important issues to light and forcefully impressing them on the Harvard consciousness--this used to be the way to unite the student body and produce reform. They...
...Perhaps activists feel proud that they have won access to Harvard's decision-making process. But they have only played into the University's hands. Their demands are now filled with talk of "governance" and of "freedom" of speech and movement; virtually gone is the word "divestment." If the campus activist movement inherited anything from the sixties, it should have learned that only violent, disruptive tactics will force the Administration to change its ways...
...real reason is what can only be labelled the "professionalization" of campus protest. An activist friend once described to me the intense and meticulous planning that went into the building of the shanties two years ago--certain groups were detailed to certain duties according to a precise timetable. Press releases are prepared and media representatives are sought for events that are calculated to produce the "right" image in the next day's news-papers and TV. People are designated to be arrested while volunteer lawyers are placed in strategic positions to make sure no one gets hurt...