The Roots of Student Unrest in African Universities

Students tweeted that during lockdowns students can never be serious. Although it was the first incident to happen this school year, Students were hoping that the lockdown would be taken seriously and not as a joke. A photo was posted on twitter of the possible suspect. A joke was made about the picture saying “If Young Metro don’t trust you…”.

A very popular topic these days is College tuition. For what seems to be ages, people didn’t give much attention to the cost of tuition. However, in current times theres been a dramatic change. It seems that everyday, several people are coming to the harsh realization of how high tuition has gotten over the years and they wish to see a change. In this essay, I shall attempt to cover a very serious and hard topic. I say that because in the process of finding information for this topic, there are several articles showing examples of people attacking administrations in serious anger. Little to no information was found giving an example of college staff and administration trying to defend or speak up. Before beginning research for this paper, I believed there would have been several arguments made between enraged parents, students, graduates and administration. Though, upon examination I found my thoughts to be confirmed as false for the most part.

Higher education has a vast history; beginning in the early colonial period and spanning ten generations. With its wide range of history, aspects of higher education have changed as the ideals and reforms of society adjusted. Albeit, the missions and purposes of college have remained the same. In this paper, I will clarify the three main missions and purposes of higher education. Then, I will shift the focus of the paper to the area I would like to pursue in higher education and how it reflects those purposes.

College, a universal, fundamental concept that the globe utilizes. Through a wide array of variations, countries across the world have developed their own meaning of what higher education is. However, the underlying tone of it all is the same, furthering one’s knowledge. With a vast number of schools from a broad range of locations trying to pull the population in, colleges compete with different tactics ranging from education relevance to evaluation. Consequently, problems have arisen from these approaches, addressed along the lines in an article called “A New Course” by Magdalena Kay, an associate professor of English at the University of Victoria and an educational film, “Ivory Tower” by Andrew Rossi, a graduate of Harvard and Yale University and a filmmaker. Furthermore, these problems change the meaning of college itself, no longer seen as an education, but as a commodity.

A protest that had been scheduled three days earlier was planned for noon on Monday, May 4. The University had tried to ban the protest; they handed out 12,000 leaflets saying the event was cancelled. Even so and estimated 2000 to 3000 people gathered on the Commons. The rally began peacefully, the iron bell was rung (usually it was rung to signal victories in football games) and one speaker started to speak. At this point the National Guard chose to disperse the crowd, fearing that the situation might get out of hand and grow into another violent protest. Tear gas was again fired into the crowd but because of wind the gas had little effect on dispersing the students, some of the protesters picked up the tear gas canisters and threw them back at the Guard. Others were throwing rocks and shouting "Pigs off campus.

The students chained the doors shut, then picked up and carried one dean outside the scene was pictured on the front page of the national newspapers. The administration stated that, “the student demands were out of hand, but some had various points were being or would be considered by appropriate committees and the rest had no basis in fact”.

Higher Education between 1945 and 1970 was known as the “Golden Age” and SPPV (1949) came right at the beginning of this era (Thelin & Gasman, 2011). In 1945 the federal government used the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill), to offset the pressure of hundreds of thousands returning war veterans into a job market that was not able to handle them all (Thelin & Gasman, 2011). The GI Bill provided a policy for increasing the diversity of student at both colleges and universities (Thelin & Gasman, 2011). The influx of students stressed many campuses because they did not have enough faculty and staff to accommodate the students as well as the physical environment to house all the students (Thelin & Gassman, 2011). The stress involved with the increase of students even further shows the need for SPPV (1949) pushing the separation between student services staff and faculty, because faculty simply did not have the time to advise and work with every new student now enrolling in the higher education system. Parker (1978) shows that during the 1960’s most colleges and universities had whole divisions dedicated to student affairs professionals, which were not present in the past and directly reflective of SPPV (1949). SPPV (1949) laid out 17 services of a student personnel program that became divisions by the 1960’s (Parker, 1978).

The student lead protest began as a peaceful protest against the draft and the Mai Lai Massacre but shortly turned into an event that would divide the nation as a whole. The protest was scheduled to begin at 12 o’clock and the University attempted to ban the gathering but despite sending out 12,000 stating the event was cancelled 2,000 students showed up to protest. The Ohio National Guard showed up in order to disperse the protest because it wasn’t allowed, the students began throwing rocks at the National Guards and chanting “Pigs off campus!”. The National Guard responded with tear gas which did very little due to strong winds. The crowd slowly began to disperse after pushing most of the crowd into a parking lot, after retreating up a hill 28 guards began firing their guns into the air and other began firing into the crowd fired.

Police said the protester, who wasn’t publicly identified, suffered injuries that weren’t life threatening. The shooter left the area, likely in a car, Portland police said in a news release.

They argued that a lot of local people are getting into the campus. They call these locals doids and claim that doids bring crime and violence to the campus. The leader of those students claimed: “When Schenectady sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

How can it possibly end in one day So much effort had gone into it The wave made him a leader More than he wished to be The students had to end it themselves

It wasn’t the right time or place for the Student for Peace to start a riot. If a person is charged or arrested for doing something it matters what time and where was it done. In Schenck v. United States (1919), Justice Holmes stated, “What someone is constitutionally allowed to do depends upon the time and place in which it is done.” This quote means that if someone is allowed to do something it all depends on what time or place it was done. For example, a person can’t just yell Fire in a crowded movie theater if there isn’t actually a fire. That would’ve caused a lot of chaos that can cause injuries and also death. It all depends on the time and place. This applies to Student for Peace because it was a park and there was a festival. In the park there are supposed to be kids Student for Peace were handing out graphic photos that were inappropriate for kids. Even if kids didn’t take the flyers, in festivals flyers are all over the place like the ground. So, kids can eventually see it. Also, it was a festival to be a community not to fight.

Protests against racial insensitivity that began at the University of Missouri last week have escalated to mass student-teacher walkouts, resulting in the resignation of the university’s president Tim Wolfe. Since this announcement, two other US campuses have staged walkouts and organized rallies to call attention to their own university issues regarding race. Specifically, rallies were held on Wednesday at Ithaca College in New York and Smith College in Massachusetts. Following the University of Missouri’s removal of their president, an interim president has been appointed, Mr. Michael Middleton- another administrator who is of African American race. As news of this new appointment spread, Ithaca College has also made calls for a change in leadership, with students chanting, “Tom Rochon - no confidence", referring to the college’s president. The protesters say Mr. Rochon has failed to increase

Initially, the university's administrators should have canceled the party or at least convened a student council to judge the appropriateness of the party in the eyes of the school's reputation as well as a representation of the university's student body. Actions like these cast a heavy shadow onto the school and student body alike. With such an event causing a multitude of protests and general outrage, the administrators should have taken action, whether it be themselves or for them to let the student body decide.

I believe that their roll call was in reference of the song ‘Watch Me’ by Silentó. They also snapped their fingers whenever someone was done presenting to them or had something they agreed with or liked. I’m exactly sure if it was for recognition or it was just something they did instead of clapping. I had never been to anything beyond an English class where people wanted to snap their fingers instead of clap. I also felt that the SGA was kind of all over the place and it seemed to be the same people talking every time something came. I felt that most of the students were extremely opinionated and couldn’t get past themselves for the sake of the meeting. But there also didn’t seem to be much order overall. The Vice president was presiding over the meeting even though the President was in attendance. I liked that the University Senate was extremely focused and goal orientated or at least it felt that way because they weren’t going over anything extremely hard hitting the day that I was there. I felt like the University Senate just wanted to get things over and done with so that they could move on. I did like it when the guy (I didn’t catch his name or if it was acknowledged) who spoke up about the issue of students publish notes online and the issues that would come with if some kind of punishment were created for students who used the