Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

33° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Letter to the Editor: Follow Irvine’s lead, take political action on campus

Last week, 11 student activists from the University of California-Irvine appeared in court on misdemeanor charges for interjecting a lecture by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren during February of last year. They were escorted one-by-one out of the lecture hall in handcuffs. While the “Irvine 11’s” narrative is uncharacteristic of Northwestern today, it resonates much with our fervent activist past.

On April 30, 1970, President Nixon announced that he would expand U.S. military operations by sending troops to Cambodia in addition to those stationed in Vietnam. Northwestern students engineered a University-wide strike spanning from May 5 to May 12, 1970. On May 5, Chancellor J. Roscoe Miller issued a statement imploring students to “show their concern in a manner consistent with the traditions of the academic community.” University Senate voted to terminate classes for the remainder of the week while faculty members collaborated with students to peacefully resist the war via media, demonstrations and the arts in addition to admonishing the administration’s use of sanction of strike activity against students. On the following Wednesday, May 13, a diverse group of 5,000 students, faculty and Evanston community members rallied at Dyche Stadium (now Ryan Field), marking their reproach for the war and administration’s neglect of the problems overseas.

A similar story was told during the South African divestment campaign in 1985, when 124 students were arrested for two sit-ins at the campus administration building.

While these student activists were castigated by their peers, the media and this very institution as naysayers and misfits, they are venerated today as the heroes of our history, the gatekeepers of progress, and the watchmen (and women) of peace.

Students today are making noise of the same kind. On September 23, 2011, the “Irvine 11” were found guilty of misdemeanors by an Orange County jury and sentenced to three years of probation.

The case of the Irvine 11 is an anomaly in regards to consequences for student activism today, for great lengths were made to find these students guilty. One of the 11 students even had charges dropped against him when the prosecution team was revealed to have illegally accessed confidential correspondences between the attorney and student. Spectators across the country attribute this high scrutiny to the role of Israel’s depiction domestically being smeared by Muslim students.

Although silence rings on Deering Meadow where the chants of protesters bellowed, and jumbo screens and drunken superfans line Ryan Field where thousands once convened during peace rallies, the world around us is ebullient with rage toward ongoing injustices. Although Chicagoland activists attempted to protest Ambassador Oren’s lecture on campus last fall, their efforts were to little avail due to Northwestern’s complacency towards controversy. Whether the injustice is toward innocent civilians in Tel Aviv, the Gaza Strip, Berlin, the Congo, or Wisconsin, it is our duty as members of the privileged world and the academic elite to peacefully voice discontent and, further, to not ostracize those who do not accept the status quo – regardless of dissent with their positions.

On the contrary, let us use this once in a lifetime gathering of brilliance at Northwestern to ignite discussion over dissent with the hope of arming ourselves to meet the complex world that awaits us. It is time to awaken the ghost of our history and channel our energy towards maintaining the well-being of mankind.

This is a call, Northwestern. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ala Salameh

President of Students for Justice in Palestine

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881
Letter to the Editor: Follow Irvine’s lead, take political action on campus