So What?

It can be hard to say what precisely comes out of student involvement in politics and the political actions that students take, but it’s clear that discussions are happening on every side and most importantly that the larger political conversation is being impacted by it. Students from Western Washington University – like students from across the United States and around the world – are discovering their political identities and how they can effect change in their society. Universities, like Western, are largely safe spaces where students have the opportunity to allow their views of politics to grow and change and to practice implementing the changes that they wish to see in the world.

Any discussion about this impact needs to be twofold: both the current views and the past actions and statements of Western Washington University’s students need to be represented during any extended conversation. Every side of the argument need to be represented, because politics themselves are an exercise in cooperation and the art of give and take. It also takes place within a community of similar discussions being had on campuses around the world. Historically, Western Washington University has been one part of larger acts of protest. Students have participated in organized walk-outs that included dozens of other institutions of education in Washington State; they have learned from the examples set on other university campuses, and in turn inspired yet more; and they have been members of the extended community of Bellingham and the surrounding areas, participating in both politics and acts of protest.

From speaking with current Western Washington University students about their views on political involvement, it became clear that regardless of their personal views they could agree on the benefit of participation. There is an awareness of how special the ability to be involved is, and of the responsibility that comes with it. There is also a sense of what can only be described as hope – though it is most often spoken about simply as the ability to create a change through political involvement.

However, it was the historical research – the time spent in archives, identifying important articles and instances – that really began to place everything that we were finding as we spoke with current Western Washington University students in context. Though it may feel as though the political climate that we find ourselves living in now, and the drive to become politically engaged that it has inspired on both sides of the aisle, is new the truth is that it is part of a long history of students speaking, acting, and engaging.

Over the years, whenever politics fluctuated, students responded.

Students at Western Washington University have long joined students from Universities and High Schools across the United States and the world in standing up, making their voices heard, and even walking out. Whether students today are aware of it or not – whether they acknowledge it or not – they are part of a long tradition of using institutions of education as platforms to bring about change.

One of the documents that we selected for inclusion on this site is a Western Front article from January 29th, 1980. The article, Forced registration, draft and the war, after the initial shock, what can we do?, was written in response to President Jimmy Carter’s call to reinstate draft registration. Within the text of the full front page article, written by Western Front contributor Gregg Olsen, is a statement that holds true today:

“Students are reacting, some positively and some negatively. And still others are vacillating somewhere between the two.”