Mediaboss Marketing

Many students across UGAs campus identify as being progressive or liberal. In the 2016 election, 58 percent of UGAs community supported Clinton over other candidates. However, there is a terrifying lack of unity among progressive groups on campus and an equally disappointingly amount of activism taking place.

While we all see the protests at the Arch, the most recent being over the Campus Carry bill, these protests are yet to show any real change in our school or our state.

This lack of large scale student activism is a new problem for UGA. In the 1960s, the University experienced a wave of student activism that shook it to its core.

During the 1960s, there was unequal treatment of female students. The Georgia Belle Handbook outlined strict dress codes and curfew rules for women; they were also barred from living off campus and from drinking.

In April of 1968, the University attempted to punish a female student for returning to her dorm room 30 minutes. In response, 400 student activists organized a three day sit in at the academic building to protest this situation. The case was dropped the next day.

While the protest was criticized by the school and local officials, within two years, men and women on campus were subjected to the same rules, and by 1980 women outnumbered men on campus.

This shows what a difference students can make in their school and state by actively banning together and standing up for what they believe is right. Without progressive students actively expressing their beliefs and channeling it into creating what they perceive as positive change on campus, all our rhetoric about social justice holds no weight.

The progressive students of UGA should rally for their chance in the upcoming special election in Congressional District 6, one of the largest suppliers of UGA students in recent years. It is a chance to fight back after the electoral losses of the 2016 election.

Yet progressive groups on campus have not acted to participate in voter drives or phone banks to garner support for the democratic front runner John Ossoff, who is doing well in a historically red district.

I wont sit here and encourage students to skip class or have sit-ins over any perceived transgression against them by the University. However, its our duty, not just as students but also as citizens to take civil activism seriously and to work toward creating change on our campus, in our state and in our country.

View post:
OPINION: Progressives need to take more action - Red and Black