"I have been gravely disappointed with the... moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
To rewind back to the week of Spring Break, when a story began floating around social media networks popular among GMU students about an incident in the library. The story recounts a "good-natured" male student who entered the library, lost his study room to a female student who refused to share the room after citing a racist comment about his accent, had the police called on him, and ended up being arrested by the police for abduction after he stayed in the study room to persuade the female to share the space. This is obviously a very condensed re-telling, but the full story that riled up over five thousand students can be found here on CNN iReport, a "blog" discussion medium where anyone can post stories. Many students banded together to support this student named "Abdi", who by all accounts of friends, would never do anything to get arrested prompting the conclusion that the GMU police were corrupt.
I previously said that I was in support of the wrongly accused, and I still am, my fascination falls on the consequences of such student activism. While I believe the feelings behind posting this story were genuine, it took on a life of its own up to the point that people were banding together against the misuse of power and having the university take some accountability. Abdi's felony charges were dropped, but now there was a forum for students to discuss injustices on their campus.
In an student culture that is implementing more use of social media networks, student activism has skyrocketed in terms of participation. While students are not afraid to be aggressive online in spreading news and opinions, the translation to their offline counterparts vary. Our society should stand by their word, and not just join an online discussion group to vent about their frustrations. An article I recently found online, titled "In Wired Singapore Classrooms, Cultures Clash Over Web 2.0" (Chronicle of Higher Education), a society of students are described as polite online, as juxtaposed against their North American counterparts. There is noted fear against student activism or even free thought online, as the author states:
"Several students pointed me to an incident in August when a 27-year-old engineer was arrested for a comment he made on Facebook. In a comment criticizing the Youth Olympic Games, he wrote that he wanted to "burn" the sports minister and called on Singaporeans to "rally together and vote them out." The arrest led to widespread complaints that the government—which interpreted the engineer's comment as a physical threat—had overreacted."This is not what our students, or even our citizens, should fear. In the realm of Student Affairs, protecting the students right to enriching experiences and opportunities to grow intellectually should always be a priority. They should not enter a world where they fear that their own government can tap into their social media network secretly, because they come to school to learn and interact with others. Whether it's because of an injustice on campus or an obvious case of discrimination, Student Affairs professionals should be ready to provide a forum for students to peacefully speak their minds and concerns. If we let student unrest go untouched, we provide an avenue for dire consequences of which an outcome cannot be predicted.
