Activism in Writing
April 7, 2008 by Kristen
I nearly titled this post: “A Slight Digression,” but then I realized: that’s silly, it really isn’t one. This blog, after all, is an exercise in activism through writing. I was asked to write an opinion piece for the Columbia Daily Spectator recently on the state of print activism as part of a three-part series on student activism at Columbia. As the co-founder of Columbia’s first progressive mag, AdHoc, back in 2005, the opinion editor thought I might have some insight. AdHoc was an interesting and extremely rewarding experiment for me. At base, it made me face the questions: How do you get your voice out into the larger world? Can socially-conscious journalism be effective? How do you balance the ideals and realities of working to enact change within a university setting? What is the relationship between written activism and other forms of activism?
Of course I never really got around to answering these questions at the time; I was too busy trying to build and keep a magazine afloat. I am happy to say that we had a number of well-researched and important articles published that year. And hot damn, there was a huge learning curve for me in figuring out how to run a magazine. The future of AdHoc is unclear–I am two years out of Columbia and, given that AdHoc’s website has been down for the past six months, I can’t say that the magazine is flourishing. But, now that I have the grace of time and leisure, here are finally some answers to those big picture questions that I never really got around to answering at the time.
The following appears in the Monday April 7, 2008 edition of the Columbia Spectator, and can be found on their website here. I have copy and pasted the article from their website below. I can’t say I’m thrilled with the headline (this isn’t a ra-ra article on the healthy state of print activism) but the article contains my philosophy on its purpose, thoughts on why print activism as opposed to online activism is still relevant, and suggestions for what student print activism should ideally address and how it should work within the greater student activism project.
Print Activism: Alive and Well
Illustration by Jona Mici
In the 2005 opening credo of AdHoc Magazine, Alex Jung (CC ’07) and I hearkened back to 1968. It was a clichéd reference and, in retrospect, not very applicable. Our project, to found Columbia’s first progressive magazine, was far removed—in content but especially in form—from the activism of that era. The protesters of ’68 initiated large-scale demonstrations and took over classroom buildings. In contrast, we sought to act as “a necessary forum to analyze what is at stake” in campus issues. Hardly the type of thing to drive the barricades up.
The idea for this magazine sprung initially from our dissatisfaction with the Columbia Daily Spectator’s 2004-5 coverage of Manhattanville. It was not the Spectator’s fault—they followed these debates closely, but their format as a daily newspaper was unsuited to heavily researched analyses or detailed opinions. We were progressives, and we felt that these issues had obvious progressive viewpoints that were being lost or ignored because students were under or misinformed. We envisioned that each issue would act as an ad hoc committee on a singular theme (Manhattanville, gender politics, privilege in education), explore its significance at Columbia, and situate Columbia’s experience within a greater social context. Fundamentally, we were driven by the simple, even simplistic, belief that if students had all the “facts,” they would act on them.
Given the costs and one-foot-in-the-grave status of print media, our scheme to start a magazine may have been harebrained. The web provides a wider potential audience and immediate response time—protests incite and create mass consensus. Nonetheless, I then believed, and still do believe, that there is a vital place for print activism on the college campus—that this is in fact critical to the success of the wider student activism project.
Ideally, print activism should serve as the foundation upon which demonstrations, marches, and sit-ins are based. The purpose of an activist student magazine such as AdHoc is three-fold. First, it seeks to highlight the issues that aren’t being discussed or discussed enough. Second, it provides a forum for voices that are rarely heard and textual documentation of oft-stifled perspectives. Third, it provides data, statistics, quotes, micro-histories, and grand narratives that can help outline position points for the demonstrators, the op-ed writers, the marchers, and the shouters.
The University campus serves as a representative system of larger societal issues. Everyday, Columbia faces its own demons of gender inequality (the lack of women represented in the science faculties), race politics (a noose on an African-American faculty member’s door), prescription medicine access (what responsibility does Columbia have for drugs their scientists create?), class inequalities (the economic fate of faculty house employees during renovations), and urban politics (hello, Manhattanville!). Truly successful print activism convinces activist and non-activist students alike that the great social battles are taking place right in front of them, reminding them that the University is hardly a “bubble”—that the University and its students’ actions affect the world at large, and they must act accordingly.
Faced with the barriers of administrative morass, students may feel as if they don’t have much power. But what they lack in position, they are able to make up for in numbers and the uninhibited raucousness of the student voice. Activist publications can play an essential role in forming that voice by providing critical commentary on University issues.
While students may get their national politics online, their knowledge of the (non-gossip, non-blog) college world comes mostly in print. Newspapers are picked up on the way to class, magazines read while waiting for the elevator, journals perused during study breaks. The college campus is much like a rural town—a place where everyone wants to know everything that’s going on in their micro-world—and thus can sustain print media in a way that is becoming more difficult at the national level.
In looking at other campus progressive magazines, the major mistake I have seen time and again is an attempt to be The Nation or the New Republic or even n+1 on a college campus. I once read an article in one such magazine that delved into a Sartrean analysis of global capitalism in the post-Y2K age. The article took no inspiration from the unique experience of the author’s university or fellow students and felt like a term paper. Needless to say, I only made it to the second page. Campus print activism must seek to be transformative through the relevancy and uniqueness of its reporting. There is no point in mimicking what major pundits or thinkers have already said.
Despite its importance, print activism faces severe challenges. Printing one issue can cost, at a minimum, over $2,500. Such magazines often receive little University support. Staff at these magazines must become savvy at finding grants and selling advertisements (seeking ads from faculty departments is always worthwhile). All campus papers face the discontinuity of ever-changing editorial boards, but for small, niche magazines, these changes can be especially disruptive. Despite these challenges, there are signs that print activism is alive and well. Campus Progress at the Center for American Progress provides support for over 50 student progressive magazines across the U.S. Young People For provides fellowships for college activists, which may often go toward funding for progressive publications. Each year, the Independent Press Association’s Campus Independent Journalism Awards acknowledges socially engaged journalism. Student print activism is by no means dead, and it shouldn’t be. Our shouting needs substance, our causes a wider consensus among the student body.
The author is a member of the Columbia College class of 2006. She is the co-founder of AdHoc.
