Call it denial, but I refuse to give up on today’s generation of college students.

Despite the unflattering labels placed on us by wizened old-timers, I decline to accept our generation lacks a social conscience. In the popular media, we’ve been called a great number of unflattering things that range from selfish to nearsighted, to spoiled.

There is no proof we are entirely devoid of social and political responsibility is nonexistent. Granted, it has been many years since students have come together in a protest resembling anything from the activism heyday of the 60s and 70s, but times have changed significantly since that turbulent era.

In fact, the trend on college campuses across the country has been toward more student activism. A movement, although not highly visible, has been building, said Christine Elliot, director of the Syracuse chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).

However, students had more ability to make a difference in the 60s and 70s, said Elliot, than they do today.

‘Back then, people felt that there was a lot at stake, but we’re going back to a time like that,’ said Elliot.

Syracuse University saw its biggest protest in the spring semester of 1970 in response to the U.S invasion of Cambodia. During this time, student barricaded campus entrances, and the administration was forced to shutdown.

Protests of this scale no longer happen on American college campuses.

But what makes college students different today from those of past generations isn’t a lack of empathy. It is the way it is expressed. Instead of rambunctious gatherings on the quad, students are organizing on the Internet and making their presence known through discussion and local initiatives.

‘There are many ways for students to get involved,’ said Thomas Boudreau, SU assistant professor of political science. ‘I’m very encouraged by what I’ve seen.’

These new initiatives are due largely to the fact that the parameters of free speech have been constricted significantly in response to terrorism and tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech last year. Students risk more now than they did 40 years ago for overt acts of protest.

In his column that appeared in the Daily Orange on Friday, Al Ortiz argued that protests of the war in Iraq are disrespectful to soldiers. This opinion is both shortsighted and damaging and reflects a countrywide trend of social fear that has caused Americans to associate protest with contempt. People who protest the war are in no way protesting the hard working and honorable soldiers on which our democracy stands. What they are protesting is a war they feel our beloved soldiers should play no part in.

SU sophomore and biology major, Deana Toussi, said if more students were knowledgeable about current events, protests would happen more.

‘We don’t care enough, unfortunately, but I hope that changes,’ said Toussi. Protests can change a lot.’

Nobody disputes that protests are valuable tools for change, but perhaps students deserve more credit for the new ways they’ve found to make their voices heard without causing too much commotion.

Meghan Overdeep is a junior magazine journalism major. Her columns normally appear every other Thursday. She can be reached at meoverde@syr.edu.

Published on March 30, 2008 at 12:00 pm