While a number of universities across the U.S. have finally begun disciplining students who harass and disrupt individuals on campus simply because they disagree with their views or a certain policy, one administrator at Vanderbilt University is calling for the actions to be celebrated.
In an essay for Inside Higher Ed, Chris Purcell, who serves as the director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Life at Vanderbilt University, believes that university officials should embrace what he calls “burner activism,” a type of activism that involves students “taking over the offices of campus leaders, shutting down streets, holding sit-ins.”
According to Purcell, universities routinely and wrongly tend to show favor towards certain forms of peaceful activism that don’t create problems for the school, while they tend to punish those who engage in disruptive forms of activism that may create legal or public relations problems for the institution. Additionally, he argues that students in leadership positions such as student government have an unfair privilege in this process.
“Too often, some administrators privilege particular forms of activism (those students who go through formal channels and play nice) over others (students who use more informal channels or tactics of supposed disruption),” writes Purcell. “These preferences are often tied to identity, as more often than not, students with more privilege have access to formal campus leadership positions — particularly elected positions like those in student government.”
Purcell believes that university officials need to embrace both “burner activism,” which includes disruptive practices designed to create discomfort for university officials as well as “builder activism,” which includes providing reasons why students feel the need to engage in such activism, without engaging in disruptive practices.
Purcell concludes his piece by pleading with university administrators to examine whether or not they afford more privilege to certain types of activism to ensure that they do not narrow the definition of what students consider to be effective activism.
“What I ask of my fellow administrators is to examine their own privileging of particular campus activism and consider if they are consciously or unconsciously narrowing the definition of effective activism on their campuses,” writes Purcell. “I have anecdotally seen students and administrators who specialize in one strategy judge or diminish those who engage in the other strategy or different forms of activism.”
John Patrick (@john_pat_rick) is a graduate of Canisius College and Georgia Southern University. He interned for Red Alert Politics during the summer of 2012 and has continued to contribute regularly.
