Student Protest movement Essay -- essays research papers

A Battle of Rights The Student Protest Movement of the 1960's was initiated by the newly empowered minds of Americas youth. The students who initiated the movement had just returned from the â€Å"Freedom Summer† as supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, registering Black voters, and they turned the principles and methods they had learned on the Freedom Rides to their own issues on campus. These students (mostly white, middle class) believed they were being held down by overbearing University rules. Student life was governed by the policy of in loco parentis, which allowed colleges to act "in place of the parents." Off campus,these young people were considered adults, but at school they were subjected to curfews, dorm visitation restrictions, close supervision, and rules against having a car or even renting an apartment. Not only were these students being treated as children in this respect, but there were also heavy restrictions put on what they could and could not discuss. Any issues, especially political, not directly related to the university were strictly prohibited. Only sandbox issues, those related to university issues were allowed on campus. This created an extremely controlled environment and severely impinged on the students rights to free speech. In reaction to such limitations, college students across the country decided to do something about it. The Student Protest Movement (SPM) began at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall of 1964. In September of that year Berkley campus authorities declared the area directly outside of the main entrance to the school off limits for advocates of civil rights and other causes. For years the strip had been accepted as a place where students could hand out pamphlets, solicit names for petitions, and sign people up. This ban set the stage for the beginning of the SPM. On September 29, demonstrators defiantly set up tables on the Bancroft strip and refused to leave when told to do so. The next day university officials took the names of five protesters and ordered them to appear for disciplinary hearings that afternoon. Instead of five students, five hundred, led by Mario Savio, marched to Sproul Hall, the administrati... ... the spot light. Many had negative feelings towards the protests and sit-ins, arguing that they did nothing but impinge on classroom time and interfere with the students ability to carry out there education. Though the SPM may have created chaos around campus, it was well manored and non-violent. The protestors took hold of the methods used in the Civil Rights movement, knowing that violence only made situations less credible and more dificult to keep under control. They were trained to simply go limp when arrested, not to resist the officers, therefore avoiding any danger to themselves or others. The sit-ins were just that; a group of students calmly sitting around conversing and playing music, all the while getting the attention and recognition they strived for. Whether the effectiveness came for the bottom up, with student organizations gathering to approach the administration, or top down, with the administration addressing the students, the issues were recognized and discussed. Both parties had their gains and losses, and the Student Protest Movement came out on top with a memorable place in