WHAT STUDENTS WANT

...For others, response to a public figure—a Martin Luther King, a McCarthy, a Kennedy —may provide the impetus...

...The same can be said of student feelings about their administrators...

...Students take politics seriously, and if there are those who remain uninvolved, fear of failing to meet understood prerequisites of political action often is the cause...

...The involvement of students in political and social causes must be seen in this framework as well—that of freeing space for learning and action...

...University administrators often say, "Wait until you leave here...

...There may be as great an underlying sense that "these dumb politicians shouldn't muck around with our lives" as there is an intuitive loyalty to their institution or to civil liberties...

...the essence of our youth, of our sense of defining ourselves, may be the taking of risks, of assuming new roles, of testing ourselves in different environments, of experimenting with new ways of changing others...

...Indeed, the left may feel that the liberal cannot understand the people for whom he presumably fights, since the liberal does not deviate from cultural norms himself...

...we need involvement in the curriculum...

...the questions which are the most critical to our lives, to the lives of all people, are those over which individual men in a mass society can exercise little control...

...Most students support lowering the voting age to eighteen...

...Our elders often do not ask such questions...

...Students are aware of the fact that professors have different skills in lecturing and that not every professor can be a Demosthenes...

...of asserting power in a climate of powerlessness—has been the central thrust of all major student movements...

...We need power in the extra-curriculum...

...the liberal will try to avoid these tactics, almost on principle, from fear of '*antagonizing" the mass...

...it will involve a transformation of institutions from the ground up...

...their answers become the fabric of some generational consensus...

...At the outset of this commentary, I cited the two paradoxes—of asserting responsibility in a context of freedom...

...We have been weaned on two paradoxes: Our affluence enables us to assume less responsibility for our lives than did our parents for theirs in the Depression, but our freedom encourages us to demand more responsibility...

...The questions are not unfamiliar: First, what is the attitude of the culture toward us...

...For the student who himself is engaged in self-definition, the culture's repression of those who do not "toe the middle class line" is seen as directly related to the culture's attitude toward him...

...The elders who "make it" with students are those without hang-ups in dealing with them, those who look upon a student as a potential friend and who are willing to open relationships with students on that basis...

...This notion is particularly relevant to the current debate on student-faculty relations within the academic setting...

...What they do expect, however, is that some sense of the scholar's enthusiasm for his subject be transmitted in the particular way in which the individual teacher is capable of presenting it...

...students oppose state interference in local university affairs and will demonstrate surprising unity when such interference produces loss of university funds, repression of political groups on campus, or bans on speakers...

...These administrators are accorded the disrespect which they so richly deserve...

...The left will use confrontation tactics almost on principle, with the goal of "shocking" the mass...

...This willingness to defend those who deviate from mass oppression creates its own standard for political leadership...

...If our power to experiment with our own rules, our own policies, in relation to these questions is limited, then our ability to figure out for ourselves what we will or will not do is limited...

...Rightfully, students wonder why people who do not enjoy teaching end up as teachers...

...Both demands involve a quest for greater responsibility, but "student power" is much more an existential...

...The battle between the liberals and the left revolves around this question as well...

...When students do make the leap from private concerns to political interest, it generally reflects one of several conditions...

...of asserting power in a context of powerlessness—as being central to the student demands of the 1960s...

...Yet even if we are not "ready" —whatever that means—most of us feel that exclusion from responsibilities is a poor way of encouraging us to accept them...

...Now they demand, "Let us make the rules...

...The rest is defense—assertions of legal authority, polemical attacks on irresponsibility, snide references to appearance and dress...

...Students, the saying goes, are people, and they want to be treated as such, not as "niggers," or even as that wonderful Negro couple who just moved in down the street...

...Yet the process of integration, of developing selfhood, is the critical process, and we feel that this can proceed only in a climate of personal testing...

...In either case, more than a question of style is involved...

...They are responding to failures of American society to cope with the problems of the cities and with the emerging nations around the world, and hoping for the "right" leadership to influence public policy in the "right" directions...

...While the issues—as well as the tactics—vary from year to year, the themes have been constant, and probably will remain so as long as our mass institutions remain mass...

...WHAT STUDENTS WANT by EDWARD SCHWARTZ President, National Student Association At almost every gathering of elders to which I am invited to speak there is one disconsolate listener who poses the question, "What do you students want, anyway...

...However, neither the left nor the liberal is terribly hard-headed about charting goals and pursuing fluid strategies to achieve them...

...and developing a tolerance for cultural pluralism in this country, and abroad...

...Most students are not demanding a curriculum dealing entirely with current problems or social issues...

...The institution of the university is our laboratory for these experiments...

...Once you leave the realm of "student issues," the only area of interest in student politics is the split between student liberals and the New Left...

...The former shows no concern for community decision-making—it is a cry for personal freedom...

...Those who "play ball with the system"—who work for candidates, who talk to government officials, who dress up occasionally—are untrustworthy...

...The deans who win student respect are those who reflect a willingness to move with the times, who possess a sophisticated understanding of the emotional and psychological needs of students, and whose counseling relationships with students involve trying to figure out the direction which they themselves want to take before offering students advice on appropriate ways to move...

...Usually, these are a few directly related to personal interests...

...The Young Americans for Freedom have lost much of their organizational strength since 1964, although they still can muster conservative opposition to NSA and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS...

...There are differences of goals as well...

...None of these groups differs substantially from political counterparts in the "adult" world...

...The problems are deeper than that, involving the structure and values of mass culture, and if we cry out, it is because the beast is difficult to move...

...For many, a political question which touches their lives—like the draft or tuition fees—• might arouse them...

...Despite conflicts over the "role" of students in politics, there are few issues which will unite students...

...Relevance," as it is usually interpreted by traditionalist professors, is a red herring...

...That the radicals have not found a coherent strategy to effect this transformation reflects as much the nature of the problem as it does their own emotional hang-ups...

...These concerns spring from classrooms in which students are not challenged, or engaged in the subject, and in which subjects are not related, even peripherally, to human enterprise...

...When a student encounters either specimen of elder, he turns himself off...

...Yet we know that those who do not demand responsibility at a college level will not demand it later in life, that they will become part of the lumpen proletariat that live out their lives in mass society "in quiet despair...

...Understanding the context in which we move is critical to understanding our present needs...

...The images which flash before the questioner's mind as he reads of student protest and student power are those of anarchy, promiscuity, and subversion sweeping the land, and the strategic response which seems to excite his allegiance is that involving massive retaliation against uppity kids in defense of parental hegemony over their affairs...

...However, demanding that option to make our own decisions—and our own mistakes—runs counter to the educational theory which holds that young people are not "ready" to do certain things, are not "ready" to play certain roles...

...of asserting selfhood and responsibility...

...When the university does not, we will attempt to free the space for ourselves, even if this means challenging the institution itself...

...Indeed, even those who defend Kennedy in the student community do so as often by emphasizing the risks he has taken as they do by arguing that Kennedy has a chance of victory...

...If he is serious about his new interest, the route to political activity will mean an extensive reading list, a change in his course schedule, and a willingness to expose himself to the risks of argument, debate, attack...

...The student community includes many factions, not the least of which is the familiar apathetic middle...

...I have not even used the traditional terms of liberalism—jobs, education, housing, welfare—because these are not the problems which students face...

...the essence of our youth, of our sense of defining ourselves, may be the taking of risks, of assuming new roles . . ." plea for self-respect and for respect from the establishment...

...The attempt to resolve these paradoxes—of obtaining responsibility in a context of freedom...

...Insofar as forces inhibit our freedom, or prevent our participation, opportunities to test our capacities as citizens are lost...

...In the end, the left argues, the liberal will sacrifice his battle for cultural freedom, for himself, the blacks, and the Vietnamese in exchange for a comfortable position in society...

...he is functioning in an unexplored area in which fresh information, untried skills, and new energy are needed...

...to reflect on what others have said about the inherent qualities of nature, man, and society...

...There are certain deans who seem to derive some sort of perverse satisfaction from enforcing rigid social rules completely out of tune with student sentiment...

...or, as often, feeble attempts to ingratiate, to play Boy Scout leader, to use "hip" language which the elder does not really understand...

...If the elder is a tyrant, he spawns a revolution...

...When the debate is applied to specifics, it becomes quite brutal...

...It is useless to tell a young person not to take risks...

...As one radical put it, "The liberal fights for other people...

...the radical fights for himself...

...The stress involved in this environment is considerable...

...the liberal will try to point out areas within the American tradition which supports his case and builds upon them...

...He fights this with fervor...

...On those campuses where educational policy has become an issue, invariably the conflict has been between those who confine education to transmission of knowledge, development of analytical skills, and those who view the process as being necessarily broader...

...of defining rules...

...What "relevance" means, more often than not, in student curricular theories, is personalization: How does the curriculum fit in with my personality development, with my ability to solve problems, with the questions which I am asking about myself and the world around me...

...On many campuses— although the number has diminished over the years—the politico remains a figure of scorn, involved in matters of no perceived relevance to the under". . . the student power cry is a cry for selfhood . . ." graduate...

...It either accords the space and resources for them, or it does not...

...Third, what role can we students play in social and political affairs...

...When professors read verbatim from ancient lecture notes, or when they refuse to discuss material with their students, they reinforce an impression that while the professor may care deeply about his subject, he does not care about his students...

...For some, it may spring from a successful local drive for student power which "politicizes" its students, which teaches them that authority figures are not sacrosanct, and which shows that they can move to alter their environment...

...A basic question is: Should students participate in politics at all...

...It is wrong, however, to assume that division between liberal and left revolves simply around questions of identity and tactics...

...the liberal talks of rebuilding it...

...Stokely Carmichael to the contrary, students have not tried to organize among whites, rich or poor...

...This is not the case...

...While this climate is shifting, it will still be years before the majority of American colleges and universities call themselves "activist...

...the latter presumes that the right to make the decision is the goal...

...Another facet of the battle involves a search for community...

...I have seen college presidents whose political positions were in substantial agreement with those of a student body lose all support from students simply because they talked down to them, or tried to pander to them, or refused to listen to them, or told them to stay in their dormitory rooms and keep quiet...

...There is a difference...

...For those who think the answer is an obvious "yes," it may come as a surprise to learn that this has been a hotly contested issue on many campuses...

...If electoral politics seems inadequate to the left, it is because the nature of the problem which they perceive cannot be solved simply through new leadership...

...After all the rhetoric, extensive ideological bombast, the fellow on the left will tell you that he is dreadfully afraid of becoming "co-opted," of being sucked up by the suburbs, by IBM, by the machine...

...There are still only a handful of student governments which take stands on political issues, for example, on the premise that these questions fall outside of "our role as students...

...The liberals are, indeed, products of their own tradition...

...The liberal-left knows that dissidents are powerless, but the important criterion is the sustenance of the dissident community...

...Second, what are the most useful relationships which we can develop between ourselves and our institutions— family, school, peer group...

...For some, moreover, outlines of a strategy of long-term organizing in ghettos, universities, suburbs, and corporations are developing, which might pull the liberal community along with it...

...their political activity more frequently reflects personal interests than it does any conscious decision to undertake a new position in society...

...Such an appraisal must also include such creative activities as the "Keep Clean for Gene" movement, which has had a measurably constructive impact on the nation's political direction...

...Do professors care about these things...

...To begin, how do our elders relate to us...

...To many students, the deans seem to have taken their jobs precisely to fill this role...

...Most students do not view "education" as being simply the time spent memorizing somebody's lectures for an exam...

...Indeed, on some of these questions, the unwillingness of students to "dirty" themselves in politics contributes to their hostility to political interference in the university...

...The university may be a special sort of community, but it is, nonetheless, a community, and we like to feel that we play "adult" roles in shaping its environment and policies...

...How this is expressed, however, varies with the question...

...There are others in college administrations whose counseling reads like a soliloquy of Polonius...

...The student who does become involved politically has chosen a new identity for himself...

...The left sees America's response to the problems of cities and developing nations as being generically related to America itself—to its culture, its values, its attitudes, which may coerce the majority as effectively as its own minorities, and minorities elsewhere...

...Yet within the framework of the paradoxes, certain questions emerge...

...Or, more precisely, what does the first postwar, post-depression, post-television, post-technology, post-bomb, post-space generation want...

...A society which worships youth inevitably will produce people who are afraid of the young—afraid of not "making it" with the young...

...The ways in which the battle is fought are as important as the battle itself— to both sides...

...If students themselves have sought to define the terms of their own identity and to assert new areas of responsibility, both young liberals and the left have applied the same principle to their response to public affairs...

...These, then, are the concerns—developing relationships with adults based on attitudes of mutual respect...

...if he becomes a boy scout leader, he is ridiculed...

...What do students want...

...The left talks of "destroying" the system...

...Yet in every case, the question of "roles" is crucial, as it is not in the larger community...

...developing communities of learning in which people's ability to act and experience is deemed as important to growth as their ability to absorb information and to decide...

...Whether it will be moved depends on our own ability to speak, and the willingness of the society to hear...

...The Young Democrats and Young Republicans are not especially strong on the campus...

...Students are doers, and we want to learn to act more effectively...

...Victory" for students is as yet dimly perceived—what victories have been won are local, not national, not adequate...

...Recent events at Columbia University and elsewhere have added substance for those who raise these images...

...it is a matter of attitude...

...Yet the framework within which student liberal-left politics operates has its own dimensions, again in tune with questions of peculiarly student concern...

...Conversely, I have seen administrators whose public and political positions differed markedly from those of their students win enormous student support by demonstrating a willingness to take students seriously, to listen to their demands, to present clear statements of disagreement, to convey a sense that they were trying to learn from what the students are saying...

...The important point is the integrity of the group, the unity of those who challenge mass life...

...The period between eighteen and twenty-three years is fundamentally a time of clarifying who we are, how we behave, what our relationship is to other people, what kinds of responsibility we can handle, what our functional roles can and will be...

...Classrooms, at best, are resource banks for this exploration—centers to obtain information...

...It seems to be assumed by their mentors that students want every professor in the classroom to be a masterful orator, with all the latest rhetorical tools at his disposal, to provide an inspirational polemic at every session...

...The left will strive to differentiate itself from the mass...

...One rarely hears students talk of "poverty" with the same fervor as they talk of the "black people," or the "Vietnamese people...

...to learn tools of evaluation...

...In general, the questions reflect a desire to expand personal and collective power...

...students have been united around maintenance of free tuition in New Jersey, New York, and California...

...Students used to say, "Liberalize rules...

...There is no single student resolution of the paradoxes...

...Consequently, the student power cry is a cry for selfhood...

...A Wayne Morse, who sticks his neck out early, or a Eugene McCarthy, who risks his career, becomes more attractive than a Bobby Kennedy, whose interest in power makes him a tenuous ally on questions of principle...

...Yet a fair and far-sighted appraisal of what students are driving at must encompass not only the broad spectrum of the style of student activism—demonstrations, stridency, eccentricity—but also the content of their protest...

...The two central issues of the decade—civil rights and Vietnam—have both involved America's response to cultural deviation, at home and abroad...

...Although the dormitory issues, the curfews, student finances, the independent student press, the boy-girl questions seem trivial issues in their own right, they are important as symbols of areas in our lives which test selfhood and self-expression...

...If there is anything which unites students of all persuasions, it is the college administrator or public official who challenges the sense, the responsibility, the interest, or the ability of the student himself...