Muhlenberg and Student Activism
The History of Activism at Muhlenberg
Colleges and universities have long been known as as a vibrant forum for social and political activism, both in the United States and around the world. There is no shortage of notable movements—The People's Park protests at UC Berkeley, the Kent State Protests and police shootings of protesters, the ensuing Student Strike of 1970, the Tiananmen Square Protests, and more recently, the 2009 California Tuition Protests. Muhlenberg is a small liberal arts college — protests numbering in the thousands are not to be expected, nor are they likely to garner much mainstream media attention or effect significant change on national issues. Nonetheless, activism in the form of protest is prominent on many small college campuses, and often plays a significant role in raising awareness about an issue as well as shaping or amending the policies of these institutions, particularly those relating to sexual assault, LGBTQ rights, and endowment investment/divestment — consider, for example, Swarthmore students' recent protest and sit-in to pressure the administration to divest from fossil fuels, as well as Bowdoin's related sit-in. 1 2
It is no secret, however, that, until this past semester (Fall 2014), activism, at least in the form of protests, had been almost entirely absent. In 2007, Peter Bredlau, former chaplain and lecturer in the RJ Fellows honors program, was quoted in an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, lamenting the lack of activism and protests at Muhlenberg, and among the younger generation in particular:
Peter Bredlau, chaplain at Muhlenberg College, said that after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he helped a student form a campus antiwar group, the Alliance for Progressive Action. But the group fizzled, never able to attract more than six students."Being an antiwar protester, or an 'anti-' protester of any kind, just isn't a credential. You can put 'fed the homeless' on your resume," Bredlau said.Besides, he added, "they might look back on their parents' generation and say, 'What did those protests achieve? We're still having wars.'"3
It was not until my senior year that I first witnessed protest activity of any kind, and as we began interviewing other veteran faculty and administrators at the College, they confirmed that these were the largest and most organized protests relating to a national social/political issue since a series of small protests regarding Vietnam, and later, the Gulf War (outside of these interviews, I could find no mention of these protests in the Muhlenberg Weekly and other news archives).
The Protests
On August 9, 2014, a grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the officer whom shot Michael Brown, was announced. The spark of activism at Muhlenberg came around midnight that night, when Christian Paris ’16 sent out a mass text inviting people to join him in Parent's Plaza to protest and raise awareness about the decision, as well as a larger protest happening in Allentown the next day. An article in the Muhlenberg Weekly by Katie Peikes '15 covered the ensuing "Midnight March":
"Around 1 a.m., the group of students, led by Paris, marched to demonstrate their frustration. They departed Parents’ Plaza and walked to the Freshmen Quad, marched down the back of Academic Row into the ML/East Quad, down Chew St. into the South/Robertson Quad, behind Benfer, to the Village, and back to Parent’s Plaza where they disbanded. By stopping at each dormitory, more students were able to join in, and Paris was able to announce the Allentown protest that was happening the following day."3
Following the subsequent decision not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner, another protest soon materialized. On December 5, 2014, an even larger group of around 100 Muhlenberg students participated in a sit-in/"die-in" protest in Seegers Union. The event was met with substantial media coverage in the Muhlenberg Weekly, the Morning Call (including an op-ed piece by Peikes '15), and WFMZ.4 5
Allentown Community Response to Protests
In our interview with the Dean of Students, Karen Green, we learned that the Allentown community had an overwhelmingly positive response to the protests. Dean Green mentioned that she had been approached while shopping at Wegmans by members of the community expressing their pleasant surprise that Muhlenberg students were activists and that they had a concern for social justice and national social/political issues. She and Professor Meek both noted that the protests challenged stereotypes that Muhlenberg students, and the younger generation in general, were apathetic, sheltered, uninformed, and/or entitled.
College Response to Protests
Dean Green, Sue Clemens, and Roberta Meek all shared positive thoughts about the protests. As mentioned earlier, Dean Green felt that the protests helped improve the College's reputation among and relationship with the community.
Despite Dean Green's support of the protests, shortly after our conversation, the College administration proposed to the campus community an extremely controversial revision of the College's protest policy, in direct response to the Fall 2014 protests. The revision was later reported by President Helm in a memo to the community to have been authored primarily by the Office of the Dean of Students, although it was suggested in his email that this may have been at the behest of other departments and individual members of the college community.
The proposed policy purported to protect the safety/security of the College community, but many considered it to be, at best, unduly restrictive of the free exercise of nonviolent protest and/or demonstration, and at worst, a thinly veiled attempt to control the timing, nature, and ideological content of dissent on campus. The full text of the proposed revision, as well as many eloquent student and faculty analyses and responses to the proposed policy, can be found on the following blog created by Allison Lloyd '15 and several supportive peers and faculty:
Student and Faculty Response to Protests, Policies, and The Future of Activism at Muhlenberg
Roberta Meek was elated by the protests and hoped that, despite the proposed policy, this nascent activism would blossom into a culture of activism and social justice at Muhlenberg—particularly among the freshmen, who were exposed to and inculcated with this spirit of activism early on.
Sue Clemens was also optimistic that the protests would help break down the barriers felt between Muhlenberg and the Allentown community, particularly with respect to her research involving the collection of oral histories from members of the Allentown Community
Author: Ben Herbsman '15
References:
1 Goldenberg, Suzanne. “Students Occupy Swarthmore College in Fossil Fuel Divestment Protest.” The Guardian, March 19, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/19/students-occupy-swarthmore-college-in-fossil-fuel-divestment-protest.2 Brogan, Beth, and B. D. N. Staff. “Bowdoin College Students End Two-Day Sit-In.” The Bangor Daily News. Accessed May 7, 2015. http://bangordailynews.com/2015/04/03/news/midcoast/bowdoin-college-students-end-two-day-sit-in/.
3 Gammage, Jeff. "A new war, and a new generation gap: Today's younger war foes don't want to use Vietnam-era tactics. But the energy is there." Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania). January 28, 2007. www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic.
4Peikes, Katie. “Grand Jury Decision on Darren Wilson Sparks Muhlenberg Protest.” Muhlenberg Weekly, December 4, 2014. http://www.muhlenbergweekly.com/news/view.php/857699/Grand-Jury-Decision-on-Darren-Wilson-Spa.
5 Peikes, Katie. “Millennials Show They Are Not the ‘Complacent Generation.’” The Morning Call, December 11, 2014. http://www.mcall.com/opinion/ithink/mc-chokehold-ferguson-protest-police-peikes-ithink-1212-20141211-story.html.
6 Lane, Hillary. “Students Join Nationwide Protests against the Killing of Two Black Men.” WFMZ. Accessed May 7, 2015. http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/Local/muhlenberg-college-students-stage-a-sitin-over-the-garner-and-brown-cases/30084546.
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