Campus protest or student protest is a form of

student activism Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. In addition to education, student groups often play central roles in democratization and winning civil rights. Modern stu ...

that takes the form of protest at university campuses. Such protests encompass a wide range of activities that indicate student dissatisfaction with a given political or

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

s issue and mobilization to communicate this dissatisfaction to the authorities (university or civil or both) and society in general and hopefully remedy the problem. Protest forms include but are not limited to: sit-ins, occupations of university offices or buildings,

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

s etc. More extreme forms include suicide such as the case of Jan Palach's, and

Jan Zajíc Jan Zajíc (died 25 February 1969) was a Czechs, Czech student who killed himself by self-immolation as a political protest. Biography He was a student of the Střední průmyslová škola železniční (Industrial Highschool of Railways) techn ...

's protests against the end of the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring (; ) was a period of liberalization, political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected Secretary (title), First Secre ...

and Kostas Georgakis' protest against the

Greek junta The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a Right-wing politics, right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels with CIA backing 1967 Greek coup d'état, overthrew the caretaker gove ...

of 1967–1974.

History

In the West, student protests such as strikes date to the early days of universities in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, with some of the earliest being the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

strike of 1209, and the University of Paris strike of 1229, which lasted two years. More widespread student demonstrations occurred in 19th-century Europe, for example in

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

20th century

Protests at historically black colleges included

Shaw University Shaw University is a private historically black university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded on December 1, 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU to begin offering courses in the Southern United States. The school had its origin in the fo ...

(1919),

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

(1924–1925),

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

(1925) and Hampton Institute (1925, 1927). The protests often involved civil rights issues between black students and white administrators. In the 1930s, some Jewish students in Poland protested against anti-Semitic

ghetto benches Ghetto benches (known in Polish as ''getto ławkowe'') was a form of official segregation in the seating of university students, introduced in 1935 at the Lwów Polytechnic. Rector (academia), Rectors at other higher education institutions in the ...

legislation. In the second half of the 20th century, significant demonstrations almost-simultaneously in many countries: the

May 68 May 68 () was a period of widespread protests, strikes, and civil unrest in France that began in May 1968 and became one of the most significant social uprisings in modern European history. Initially sparked by student demonstrations agains ...

events in France began as a series of student strikes; Polish political crisis that occurred the same year also saw a major student activism; and the

Mexican Movement of 1968 The Mexican Movement of 1968, also known as the Mexican Student Movement (''Movimiento Estudiantil'') was a social movement composed of a broad coalition of students from Mexico's leading universities that garnered widespread public support fo ...

also started with students. The largest student strike in the history of the United States occurred in May and June 1970, in the aftermath of the American invasion of Cambodia and the killings of student protesters at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...

in Ohio. An estimated four million students at more than 450 universities, colleges and high schools participated in what became known as the Student strike of 1970. It has been argued that student strikes and activism have a similarly long history in Confucian Asia.

21st century

A peak of activism ignited in 2013 across college campuses nationally with a movement known as the new Campus Anti-Rape Movement (CARM). This insurgence of student activism put the political issue of campus rape back into the national conversation. Uniquely, with the growing digital world in the early 21st century, this movement was able to accomplish what decades of activism in the realm of college campus sexual assault hadn't previously through the use of social media and networking. In a 2020 literature review by Bovill et al., researchers found that student activism can effectively alter campus policies, this is especially true against sexual violence on college campuses and how universities mishandle complaints. The researchers found that student-led movements engaging in visible protests can be particularly effective. Additionally, researchers recommended that rather than perceive student activism as a threat to their respective institutions, universities should work alongside their students, so students feel comfortable expressing their opinions and potential solutions. Starting April 2024, a wave of college protests began following mass arrests at a Colombia University protest. Students and faculty at dozens of universities protested the ongoing Israel's Gaza War, seeking for college institutions to divest from pro-Israeli causes. Starting at the end of 2024, some have declared the

student protests in Serbia A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

to be the biggest student-led movement in Europe since 1968. After 15 years dictatorship, Bangladesh's prime minister Sheikh Hasina stepped down on August 5, 2024 after hundreds of students broke a military curfew and attacked her official residence, achieving a victory that cost more than 1,400 lives in 36 days.

Participation and issues

Early studies of campus protests conducted in the United States in the mid-1960s suggested that students who were more likely to take part in the protests tended to come from middle class and

upper middle class In sociology, the upper middle class is the social group constituted by higher status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term '' lower middle class'', which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle-class stra ...

backgrounds, major in

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

s and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

, and come from families with liberal political views. Later studies from early 1970s, however, suggested that participation in protests was broader, through still more likely for students from social sciences and humanities than more vocational-oriented fields like economy or engineering. Student protesters were also more likely to describe themselves as having liberal or centrist political beliefs, and feeling politically alienated, lacking confidence in the party system and public officials. Early campus protests in the United States were described as

left-leaning Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. Ideologies commonly associated with it include social democracy, social liberalism, progressivism, and green politics. Ideas commonl ...

and liberal. More recent research shares a similar view, suggesting that right-leaning, conservative students and faculty are less likely to organize or join campus protests. A study of campus protests in the United States in the early 1990s identified major themes for approximately 60% of over two hundred incidents covered by media as multiculturalism and identity struggle, or in more detail as racial and ethnic struggle, women's concerns, or gay rights activities and represent what recent scholars have described both affectionately and pejoratively as " culture/cultural wars," "campus wars," "multicultural unrest," or "identity politics"... The remaining examples of student protest concerned funding (including tuition concerns),

governance Governance is the overall complex system or framework of Process, processes, functions, structures, Social norm, rules, Law, laws and Norms (sociology), norms born out of the Interpersonal relationship, relationships, Social interaction, intera ...

, world affairs, and environmental causes". While less common, protests similar to campus protests can also happen at secondary-level education facilities, like high schools.

Forms

Repertoire of contention Repertoire of contention refers, in social movement theory, to the set of various protest-related tools and actions available to a movement or related organization in a given time frame. The historian Charles Tilly, who brought the concept into ...

in campus protests can take various forms, from peaceful

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

s, marches, teach-ins, to more active forms that can spread off-campus and include violent clashes with the authorities. Recent research from a quantitative cross-national analysis conducted in 2020 on why student activism most likely takes the form of peaceful protest within the scope of institutional political processes offers an explanation - the emphasis in higher education curriculum to support values, deliberation, and new ideas. Campus protests can also involve faculty members participating in them in addition to students, through protests led by or organized by faculty, rather than students, are a minority. Just like students can worry about being expelled for participation in the protests, some faculty members are concerned about their job security if they were to become involved in such incidents. A common tactic of student protest is to go on strike (sometimes called a boycott of classes), which occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school, college or university refuse to go to class. It is meant to resemble strike action by organized labour. Whereas a normal strike is intended to inflict economic damage to an employer, a student strike is more of a logistical threat: the concerned institution or government cannot afford to have a large number of students simultaneously fail to graduate. The term "student strike" has been criticized as inaccurate by some unions and commentators in the news media. These groups have indicated that they believe the term boycott is more accurate. Student protests can often spread off-campus and grow in scale, mobilizing off campus activists and organizations, for example the 2014 Hong Kong class boycott campaign led to the city-wide

2014 Hong Kong protests A series of sit-in street protests, often called the Umbrella Revolution and sometimes used interchangeably with Umbrella Movement, or Occupy Movement, occurred in Hong Kong from 26 September to 15 December 2014. The protests began after th ...

. One form that student-led activism can take is through the deliberate utilization of posters and slogans. There is research to support the method of analyzing rhetoric and visual demonstrations used in student protests to better understand the motivations and goals of a social movement. Cécile Van De Velde, a sociology professor at the University of Montreal, offers a relevant perspective on protest writings within social movement research. She posits that such rhetoric used on student posters possess an "expressive richness," allowing researchers to better understand the concerns, shared identities, and emotional expressions of those involved in the movement. To help highlight the importance of slogans, Van De Velde discusses the 1960s feminist movement slogan ‘The personal is the political’ which was decisive in the development of the movement itself from the 1960s onward.

Response and aftermath

Over time, university tolerance of campus protests have grown; while protests occurred before the 20th century they were more likely to be "crushed... with an iron fist... by university leaders" than by mid-20th century, when they have become much more common and tolerated. By the early 21st century, the university response to campus protest in the United States is much more likely to be negotiations, and willingness to yield at least to some of the student demands. There was a resurgence of student activism in the United States in 2015. In Germany, tuition in public universities were abolished in response to student protests between 2006 and 2016. University response to student activism and campus protests can still be much harsher in less liberal countries like China or Taiwan. In 1980 student protests in South Korea were violently suppressed by the military (the Gwangju uprising). As recently as in 1989 a large scale student demonstration in China that moved off-campus, the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

, was met with deadly force.

Examples

* 2025 Indonesian protests * 2024 Serbian anti-corruption protests * 2024 Anti-quota protest: Youths of Bangladesh toppled a dictator * 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses ** 2024 Columbia University pro-Palestinian campus occupation * 2024 Boston University strikes * 2023 University of Brighton protests * 2023 University of Manchester protests * 2022 Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro (Querétaro, México) strike and occupation * 2022 Huntington High School walkout * 2021 Newport High School Student Demonstration * 2021 Boğaziçi University protests * 2021 Columbia University strike * 2020 Thai protests * 2019–2020 Iraq student protests^Ref.? * 2019 JNU Protests in New Delhi – India^Ref.? * 2018–2020 "Fridays for Future"

School strike for climate Fridays for Future (FFF), also known as the School Strike for Climate ( ), is an international movement of school students who skip Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand climate change mitigation, action from political le ...

– global * 2018 Bangladesh road safety protests * 2018 " March for Our Lives" student protest – United States * 2017–18 Mahatma Gandhi Central University protests – India * 2017–18 Iranian protests * 2017 Jallikattu protests – India * 2016 SATs Strike protest against tests for 6 and 7-year olds – UK * 2016 Boston Public School students walkout in protest of budget cuts – United States^Ref.? * 2016 Joint Student protests in Central Universities India^Ref.? * 2016 JNU Student Protests in New Delhi – India^Ref.? * 2015 " Fees Must Fall" – South Africa * 2015 University of Missouri protests – United States * Million Student March – United States * 2015 Bangladesh student protests * 2015 University of Amsterdam Bungehuis and Maagdenhuis Occupations – Netherlands * 2014 Jadavpur University protests – India * 2014 Hong Kong student protest for democracy * 2014 Sunflower Student Movement – Taiwan * 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping – Mexico * 2012 Quebec student protests – Canada * 2012 Valencia student protests * 2011 student protests in Chile * 2010 University of Puerto Rico Strike * 2010 UK student protests *

2008 Greek riots The 2008 Greek riots started on 6 December 2008, when Alexandros Grigoropoulos (), a 15-year-old Greek student, was killed by a special officer in Exarcheia district of central Athens. The killing of the young student by police resulted in larg ...

* 2007 Dutch pupil strike * 2006 student protests in Chile * 2006 student uprising in Iran * 2005 Quebec student protests – Canada * July 1999 Iran student protests * 1996–1997 protests in Serbia * 1996 Quebec student protests – Canada *

– China * 1989 Anti-SAP riots – Nigeria * 1988 Deaf President Now protest – United States * 1980 student protests in Kabul – Afghanistan * 1978 "Ali Must Go" protests – Nigeria * 1976–77

Soweto uprising The Soweto uprising, also known as the Soweto riots, was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976. Students from various schools began to p ...

– South Africa * November 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising – Greece * 1971 Diliman Commune – Philippines * 1970–1972 Huelga schools, Houston – United States * 1970 Student Strike – United States *

Protests of 1968 The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, which were predominantly characterized by the rise of left-wing politics, Anti-war movement, anti-war sentiment, Civil and political rights, civil rights urgency, youth C ...

** 1968–69 Japanese university protests ** Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968–1969 – United States ** 1968 student demonstrations in Yugoslavia ** May 1968 uprisings – France ** 1968 protests in Poland ** 1968 East L.A. walkouts – United States * 1966 Chinese Cultural Revolution * 1965 Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu – India * 1964–65 U.C. Berkeley Free Speech Movement – United States * 1960 Anpo protests – Japan * 1956 Bucharest student movement – Romania * 1924-1925 Fisk University protest * 1901–1904 Września children strike – Poland * 1766 Butter rebellion at Harvard University – United States * 1229 University of Paris strike – France

References

{{Reflist

External links

Bloodiest Student Protests
– slideshow by ''Life'' magazine
Occupy Wall Street Protests Shifting to College Campuses
*

Protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...