On this page we provide pointers for getting started as an activist.
"Building a community activism research guide" tutorial:
https://training.springshare.com/friendly.php?s=libguides/build-a-guide-community-activism
Join a student club, start a "free college" initiative within a club you belong to, or start a new club. College clubs or groups that have advocated for free college on other campuses have included:
Check out:
Write an article for your student newspaper or other student publication to bring awareness to the issues.
For example:
Skyline College students: To access e-books, when prompted, log in using the same credentials you use for Canvas/SMCCD email.
Youth Activism in an Era of Education Inequality by
Diverse case studies on how youth build political power during an era of racial and educational inequality in America This is what democracy looks like: Youth organizers in Colorado negotiate new school discipline policies to end the school to jail track. Latino and African American students march to district headquarters to protest high school closure. Young immigration rights activists persuade state legislators to pass a bill to make in-state tuition available to undocumented state residents. Students in an ESL class collect survey data revealing the prevalence of racism and xenophobia. These examples, based on ten years of research by youth development scholar Ben Kirshner, show young people building political power during an era of racial inequality, diminished educational opportunity, and an atrophied public square.
The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College Campuses by
Meet the new breed of student activists--uncompromising, focused, and connected. Activism is once again back on college campuses as students protest issues such as sexual assault, climate change, racial injustice, and student debt. It's perhaps unsurprising that the current political moment has triggered the rise of a new breed of student activist--uncompromising, focused, and connected. But many pundits have variously derided student activists as either "snowflakes," too fragile to encounter opinions that run contrary to their own, or as "social justice warriors" who aggressively fight against those who transgress the ever-changing bounds of political correctness. The New Student Activists moves beyond these simple stereotypes and convenient caricatures to examine the nuanced motives and complex experiences of real-life, present-day college student activists. Jerusha O. Conner offers insight into who these student activists are--the causes they care about, the strategies they deploy, the factors that motivate and sustain them, and the impact they have had on their campuses and beyond. Conner dubs today's student activists "neoactivists," who borrow from and build on the legacies of past generations of college student activists. Exploring when, how, and why this diverse group of students turned to activism, Conner examines the social and educational influences on their sociopolitical development. She also reveals the fraught but mutually transformative relationship between institutions of higher education and student activists in the contemporary moment. Written for anyone interested in better understanding the latest wave of student activism on campuses, The New Student Activists raises fascinating implications for developmental theory and higher education policy and practice.
The Activist's Handbook by
In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of The Activist's Handbook, Randy Shaw's hard-hitting guide to winning social change, the author brings the strategic and tactical guidance of the prior edition into the age of Obama. Shaw details how activists can best use the Internet and social media, and analyzes the strategic strengths and weaknesses of rising 21st century movements for immigrant rights, marriage equality, and against climate change. Shaw also highlights increased student activism towards fostering greater social justice in the 21st century. The Activist's Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century details the impact of specific strategies on campaigns across the country, from Occupy Wall Street to battles over sweatshops, the environment, AIDS policies, education reform, homelessness, and more: How should activists use new media tools to expose issues and mobilize grassroots support? When should activists form coalitions, and with whom? How are students--be they DREAMers seeking immigration reform or college activists battling ever-increasing tuition costs--winning major campaigns? Whether it's by inspiring "fear and loathing" in politicians, building diverse coalitions, using ballot initiatives, or harnessing the media, the courts, and the electoral process towards social change, Shaw--a longtime activist for urban issues--shows that with a plan, positive change can be achieved. In showing how people can win social change struggles against even overwhelming odds, The Activist's Handbook is an indispensable guide not only for activists, but for anyone interested in the future of progressive politics in America.
We Demand: The University and Student Protests by
"Puts campus activism in a radical historic context."--New York Review of Books In the post-World War II period, students rebelled against the university establishment. In student-led movements, women, minorities, immigrants, and indigenous people demanded that universities adapt to better serve the increasingly heterogeneous public and student bodies. The success of these movements had a profound impact on the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century: out of these efforts were born ethnic studies, women's studies, and American studies. In We Demand, Roderick A. Ferguson demonstrates that less than fifty years since this pivotal shift in the academy, the university is moving away from "the people" in all their diversity. Today the university is refortifying its commitment to the defense of the status quo off campus and the regulation of students, faculty, and staff on campus. The progressive forms of knowledge that the student-led movements demanded and helped to produce are being attacked on every front. Not only is this a reactionary move against the social advances since the '60s and '70s--it is part of the larger threat of anti-intellectualism in the United States.
Rise and Resist: How to Change the World by
The revolution has arrived- get ready. Rise & Resist takes a wild trip through the new activism sweeping the world. The political march is back in a big way, as communities rally to build movements for environmental and social justice. But today's context calls for increasingly creative strategies to make our voices heard. Crossing the globe, Clare Press meets passionate change-makers who believe in the power of the positive. From eco warriors and zero wasters to knitting nannas, introvert craftivists to intersectional feminists, they're all up for a revolution of sorts. Are you? Join Press as she tracks the formation of a new counterculture, united by a grand purpose- to rethink how we live today to build a more sustainable tomorrow.
