Library response to Black Liberation Collective: a review of student calls for change and implications for anti-racist initiatives in academic libraries

PurposeIn September 2015 protests erupted at the University of Missouri following a series of racist incidents on campus and culminating in the resignation of the university president in November 2015. In solidarity with the protests student activists at universities across the United States and Canada organized into the Black Liberation Collective and held the first #StudentBlackoutOut day of protests on university campuses on November 15 followed by the publication of lists of demands to over 80 colleges in 28 states, the District of Columbia and Canada in the hopes of creating more-equitable and inclusive institutions. These demands shared similarity in requests for equity as those put forth during the Black Campus Movement of the late 1960s which led to the establishment of Black studies and cultural centers at colleges and universities. Academic libraries in particular were included with several demands to better serve the Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) community.Design/methodology/approachWhile librarianship has largely been a historically White profession, libraries have undertaken many diversity and inclusion initiatives over the years. This article will examine seven case studies concerning college and university libraries addressing demands collated by the Black Liberation Collective in 2015. Six years out from the publication of the lists, we will evaluate statements issued by the libraries and posted on their websites, the promises that have been made to address inequities and the ensuing actions the libraries have taken to create a welcoming, inclusive community.FindingsThe authors examine seven institutions where demands from student activists speak directly to the library. We examine the library's response to make changes and subsequent actions.Originality/valueThe authors take a journalist approach to their research and examination of library responses.

Puerto Rican Student Activism and Enacting Consciousness in Chicago: Learned Lessons and Implications for Practice

This research study focuses on how the racialized experiences of second-generation Puerto Rican student activists in Chicago during the social movement era increased their political identity to demand structural changes in secondary and college contexts. Drawing from over a dozen interviews and 100 source materials, this research uncovers the relationship between racialization, political consciousness, and community-engaged student activism. The study concludes by highlighting lessons learned and implications for practice.

What Now for the Zimbabwean Student Demonstrator? Online Activism and Its Challenges for University Students in A COVID-19 Lockdown

University student activism is generally characterized by protests and demonstrations by students who are reacting to social, political, and economic challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized university student activism, and closed the geographical space for protests and demonstrations. The pandemic locked students out of the university campus, thus, rendering the traditional strategies of mass protests and demonstrations impossible. The COVID-19-induced lockdowns made it difficult, if not impossible, to mobilise for on-campus demonstrations and protests. It seems the pandemic is the last nail in the coffin of on-campus student protests. This theoretical paper uses a collective behaviour framework to explain the evolution of student activism in Zimbabwe, from the traditional on-campus politics to virtual activism. It discusses the challenges associated with cybernetic activism. The paper argues that, despite challenges, Zimbabwean university student activists need to migrate to a new world of digital technology and online activism. In the migration to online activism, students activists face a plethora of challenges. On top of the already existing obstacles, activists face new operational challenges related to trying to mobilise a constituency that has relocated to cyberspace. Student activists utilize the existing digital infrastructure to advance their politics, in spite of a hostile state security system and harsh economic environment, and other operational challenges.

The Mental Health Effects of Student Activism: Persisting Despite Psychological Costs

As student activism continues to roil campuses, concerns have arisen about the mental health costs associated with activist-oriented civic engagement. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 42 self-identifying student activists from across the United States, this study examines how activists describe the impact of their activism on their mental health. While just under one third of the respondents perceived a positive effect, 60% of the respondents noted adverse consequences to their psychological well-being. Nevertheless, these respondents remained committed to continuing their activism. Four factors surfaced in activists’ reflections on their mental health, which, while not responsible for positive mental health outcomes, did help offset the stress, exhaustion, and guilt associated with activism. These four factors included social capital or connection to others, a sense of purpose, effecting change, and self-care and collective care. Respondents credited these factors with helping them to sustain the emotionally and physically difficult work of activism. Implications for higher education policy and practice are discussed.

Gender, Anticolonialism, and Education

Anticolonialism is a revolutionary philosophy, a philosophy of revolution. Simply put, it is the struggle for freedom from slavery, settler colonialism, and imperialism. It is the theory and practice of the decolonization of nation-states, as well as of the decolonization of practices of knowledge production, consumption, dissemination, and the entire enterprise of education. It also works to decolonize minds, bodies, and imaginations. Anticolonialism challenges dominant practices of knowledge (and ignorance) production to highlight the intersection of gender, race, and class in what is known and not known about the past as it plays out in the present in education and beyond. Anticolonial scholarship and activism focus on intersectional accounts of history to investigate class- and gender-based forms of violence in some of the most celebrated nonviolent movements. Highlighting the psychic dimensions of domination and resistance is central to the anticolonial project, which elaborates on the boomerang effects of domination and the perils of privilege. This insight is central to imagining a sustainable world of social solidarity and reciprocity. The success of an anticolonial approach to education lies in creating capacities to critically reflect on colonial discourses, institutional structures, educational policy, practice, and pedagogical strategies. The anticolonial project brings to light the psychic life of domination and resistance, which colludes with flaws in the criminal justice system that work to funnel too many children of color out of school and into juvenile and justice systems. Anticolonial educational strategies begin with an intersectional approach to disrupting the school to prison pipeline—a devastating neocolonial formation. Twenty-first-century anticolonial educators and activists learn from the work of student activists in the Mississippi civil rights movement and their creation of Freedom Schools. The radical conceptions of pedagogy, citizenship, and power developed in Freedom Schools have important implications for thinking about the role of education in building a multiracial/multisexual anticolonial democracy in the 21st century.

Implementation of Strengthening State Science Knowledge Using Camp Study Methods on PPKn Students Of PGRI Banyuwangi University

Knowledge of state science is the basis for maintaining state institutions, so that research is carried out continuously and scientifically, as well as solving problems in students' knowledge of state science. The purpose of this service is to provide reinforcement to students about state science by presenting state science practitioners. Knowledge skills about state science and student attitudes towards the development of the country. This activity was attended by 25 PPkn students of PGRI Bnyuwangi University batch 2020. The method used was to present speakers of political practitioners and student activists in 1998 so that the level of student knowledge about state science and the role of students in the movement to build the nation could become the spirit of students in the reform era. In practice, students' knowledge of state science is increasing and it can be concluded that the role of students to maintain the institution is very important.

Conflict in the Community

Chapter 4 charts the most contested phase of Black educational activism in the North as support for Black-controlled schools expanded alongside the Black Power movement, concurrent with the growth of court-ordered school desegregation across the urban North. “Community-control” activists, like those in New York City and Newark, New Jersey, saw separation as a rational response to what they viewed as the dismal failure of school integration. They called for community control over administration, curriculum, pedagogy, and hiring in majority Black schools and called for desegregation plans to be halted. Student activists demanded Black history courses, fairer discipline and dress code policies, and more respect for Black culture. Not everyone agreed with this renewed vision of autonomous Black institution-building, especially an older generation of civil rights warriors. Although briefly appealing, community control and Afrocentric curricula did not successfully equalize public education and receded in the early 1970s.

The role of gratitude and positive reframing on student activists' level of sense of coherence

This study aimed to provide evidence regarding how gratitude and positive reframing serve as predictors on student activists’ levels of sense of coherence in a private university in Tangerang. Data was collected from a sample of 140 students who were active members of student organizations. The Gratitude Questionnaire Six-Item-Form (GQ-6) was used to measure gratitude, Positive Reframing Measurement (PRM) was used to measure positive reframing, and Sense of Coherence Scale 13 Items (SOC-13) was used to measure sense of coherence. The result exhibited a significant contribution of gratitude and positive reframing toward student activist’s level of sense of coherence and all its dimensions. Other findings related to these variables, limitations of the study, and future research directions are also discussed.

DEALING SMOOTHLY WITH STUDENT ACTIVISM: REFLECTIONS OF ACTIVISTS AND ADMINISTRATORS IN SRI LANKAN STATE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM

Activism is natural in any context. Similarly, in Sri Lanka student activism has been a prolonged issue in the state university system. As many sources mentioned, it has been deeply embedded in the system, thus eradicating activism is impossible. Therefore, we need to find some strategies to break the early development of activism and to weaken the impact. However, the local authorities have simply labeled student activism as a political matter and ignored them for years in Sri Lanka. Past studies have extensively discussed the negative consequences of activism, yet the prevention strategies are rarely spoken. Therefore, this study aims to seek strategies to deal with activism smoothly. Since the art of handling conflicts is subjective, this study employed the phenomenological approach under the qualitative strategy. A sample of administrators and student activists was selected using purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data and they were analyzed thematically. Mediation strategies were revealed from both activists' and administrators’ perspectives. Accordingly, this study revealed that activists expect a fair, respectful, friendly, humanistic, and genuine approach from the administrators' end. Administrators seek more autonomy and democratic governance when dealing with activism and they revealed some unique issues of their side. Two-Way communication, flexibility in mechanisms, humanistic approaches, more participation are the concerns where both parties are well thought out. All the identified strategies will be useful in handling activism smoothly in the future.