One of my greatest frustrations with Ferris these past four years has been the overall neutrality of our campus culture.
I thought that entering college during an election year, a pandemic with unprecedented government oversight and mere months after the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement would embolden my peers to speak and organize.
As a freshman, I was disappointed to see that only one of the major political parties even had a functioning chapter at this school. The political narrative of college students in Big Rapids seemed equally one-sided and lackluster.
Academic campuses have historically served as the frontlines of political activism. They are full of people from different areas of the state, country and world who have all come together in the name of learning more and building a better future for ourselves.
This month, the American Civil Liberties Union released an open letter to colleges and university leaders to reject the efforts of stifling and “chilling free speech.” Unsurprisingly, the letter was inspired by news from the state that I call home six months out of the year: Ron DeSantis’ Florida.
Chancellor Ray Rodrigues from the other FSU, Florida State University, worked “in consultation with Governor DeSantis” to deactivate Florida chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine on public campuses.
The letter explains that this effort not only wrongfully accuses students of offering material support for terrorism, but also infringes upon their First Amendment right of free speech.
I do not find it to be dramatic to remind the public of the damages of the McCarthy era, as the ACLU’s letter does. If we enforce one-sided discourse for any global issue, we encourage confirmation bias and historical ignorance.
Every college student spends enough time in the echo chamber of social media. Our academic institutions should not sound like them as well.
While it is a thousand miles away, there is plenty we can learn from Florida. DeSantis wants the image of a state that loves and embraces freedom. He then curtails the freedoms of students, the LGBTQ+ community, minorities and women.
One of the great joys of my college experience has been watching our student engagement grow on topics including reproductive rights and the war in Gaza. I credit this in large part to the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, an organization I’m proud to participate in, and the important education and wisdom found in our history classes.
This school loves to quote founder Woodbridge N. Ferris when he said “I am a radical advocate for the larger freedom of the women” or “don’t use [your knowledge] in oppressing others.” He dreamed of education for “all people in our states.”
If this is the philosophy that our school is built upon, I often wonder when and how it was collectively forgotten in areas aside from potential new student tours.
I encourage students to use their rights and privileges on a college campus to speak for those who do not share those rights and privileges. If you do not feel like you’ve paid enough attention to current events, big or small, to join a collective conversation, I have to honestly ask what the point of all this education and exposure is to you.