The Seven Most Ridiculous College Protests Of 2017
This article originally appeared in Forbes.
There has been no shortage of political protests this year. And especially on college campuses. Here are the top seven most ridiculous college protests of 2017.
7. University Of Pennsylvania Graduate Students Stage A “Work-In”
In past years, students have organized a “shit-in”and “cry in.” This year, graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania protested the Republican tax bill in Congress with a “work-in.” Participants were called on to sit outside the Offices of the President and Provost and “read, or grade, or do any kind of work to demonstrate how vital our work is the Penn community.”
6. University Of Cincinnati Students Protest The “State Of The Nation”
College students today point to a myriad of school administration or national policies as “triggers” to protest. But some University of Cincinnati students seemed to run out of identifiable policies. So they decided to just showcase their general unhappiness by protesting the “state of the nation,” as reported by The College Fix. It was a silent protest, according to one student, so that participants could “force people to witness our experiences without creating room for debate or differing opinions.”
Shutting down debate and diversity of opinion is the opposite of what should be happening on campuses.
5. University Of California, Berkeley Students Protest Mid-Term Exam
At the University of California, Berkeley, four students demanded a take-home essay rather than an in-class exam, as reported by Campus Reform. These students disrupted the exam. When the professor offered to talk with the students outside the classroom, the protesters decided to complain to the Department of Ethnic Studies instead.
4. Reed College Students Stage A Sit-In For Divestment
Reed College students staged a sit-in in the administrative building calling for divestment from Wells Fargo “because of the company’s ties to private prisons, ‘police militarization’ and the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.” The students’ demands were rejected in a statement that recognized that, “Regardless of any private beliefs held by the members of the Investment Committee, Reed College operates according to a long-standing principle (stated in its Investment Responsibility Policy) of eschewing any political or social justice positions that do not directly affect the fulfillment of its educational mission.”
3. Brown University Alumni And Students Protest Female CEO Receiving Honorary Degree
With a Change.org petition, Brown University community members called for the University to change course and not award an honorary degree to PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi because she “is not only an advisor to Donald J. Trump, she makes $29.8 million a year selling junk food produced with links to child labor, human rights abuses, and deforestation.” More specifically, the organizers complained that (1) as a member of President Donald Trump’s Strategy and Policy Forum of business leaders, Nooyi is “complicit in the current administration’s racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and anti-environment agenda;” (2) PepsiCo “appropriates social movements;” and (3) “PepsiCo’s supply chain is riddled with irresponsibly produced palm oil.”
2. University Of Wisconsin-Madison Students Organize A “Bonerfide Penis Arts Fest”
The Cocks Not Glocks student group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison protested Young Americans for Freedom hosting Katie Pavlich to speak on the Second Amendment with a “Bonerfide Penis Arts Fest.” The protest entailed signs of “dick art that has ZERO literary, artistic, political, educational, or scientific value.” Participants were also encouraged to tie a dildo to their backpack. The Facebook event page included a picture of a protester holding a “Time to be hard-on gun culture” sign with a penis drawing and read:
Bring your favorite art supplies! We will provide a giant roll of craft paper and a megaphone. Make crappy dick art with us! Write dumb dick poems! Give us bad anatomy lessons! Facts about sexuality and sexual assault don’t matter to Katie or YAF, so they don’t matter to us either. Get up and present your work and we’ll give you a free new protest dildo from Good Vibrations.
1. Arizona State University Students Protest For Credit
Students enrolled in a “Global Politics of Human Rights” class were given the option of a group project instead of a final paper. No surprise that they chose the group project. They decided to organize a protest, forming a human “wall against hate!” with a political agenda. As reported by the Arizona Republic, “[t]he focus was opposition to many of President Donald Trump’s policies, with deportations and a call for a new border wall the major focuses.”
Students were given credit for protesting Trump’s policies. That sums up the state of affairs on campus today.