Student Activism

Samonte (1970) defined student activism base on his synthesis from E. Wight Bakke’s article “Roots and Soil of Student Activism” as the involvement in mass demonstrations of young people drawn predominantly from college and university populations who are protesting the status quo or some segment of it (a phenomenon of varying magnitude, intensity and organization) and raising some problems of public order for the university and/or public authorities.

Student activism occurred almost as long as the university system existed. Back in the 1200s, students fought the townspeople over different issues such as property damage to the treatment of servants. Around 1600s was the time student activism arrived in the US, and the first recorded American student movement was in 1638. These students fight in opposition of confinement of university life and the expectations put upon them. However, by the time of Great Depression, student activism started to focus on social causes (Bills, 2015).

In the Philippines, student activism has long been a political force and still remains one. Although students were politically passive before due to the political culture in the country then. Wherein students were cultivated by conservatism, values, and education system that raises harmony between the citizenry and the government. Until late 1960s, nationalism rose among college students. They demonstrated different issues about US imperialism and more importantly as a student