Campus Activism

The Chronicle features an article on the wave of protests that have taken place this fall and how colleges should respond. After a year and a half hiatus, college students are rethinking what they want their campus social environments to embody. Students are increasingly using social media to call out their institutions, rally student peers, and demand immediate action from administrators. Professors specializing in higher education say instead of sending out university-wide emails in response, it may be time for administrators to connect with students on social media. “[T]hink that sending an email to the university saying, ‘This is the progress we made,’ is going to be read by students[?] … [I]nstitutions need to [join] the conversation that students are very much already having on social media,” said Katherine S. Cho, an assistant professor of student affairs in higher education at Miami University of Ohio.