Yale, 1998: plenty of causes, not enough rebels

By Kate Mason

While a mere mention of the '60s is enough to make econ majors shudder and potheads titter, it was not really the long hair, free love, or even the parties ruled by folk songs and acid that made the decade such an amazing time to be in school.

It was the overall dynamism of the student body and the excitement that reverberated throughout college campuses across the country. It was the feeling that things were changing--and that students, as young, intelligent, educated people living in a country that was suddenly exploding, could have something to do with that change. In short, it was the sense that life was going somewhere.

It is not difficult to notice a difference in the environment of college campuses today. Instead of large-scale protests, rallies, sit-ins, and riots, Yale has Take Back the Night, Affirmative Action Awareness Day, and Pride Week. Forget about civil rights--Yale doesn't even acknowledge Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Forget about poverty--Yale's community service programs, however plentiful, rarely force their way into the limelight.

The causes that do manage to spur enough interest in the student body for an actual event to be organized remain surprisingly low-key and quiet. I'd been hearing about Pride Week ever since I got here, but the most shocking things I saw were an unobtrusive pink triangle on someone's backpack and a flyer in the dining hall advertising a speaker on the subject of homosexuality. It was hardly the emotionally-charged, ruckus-causing jamboree of pride to which I was looking forward.

Affirmative Action Awareness Day, or "Whiteout," did manage to incite a bit of controversy over one comment that was made at the opening of the event, but aside from the instance of what was essentially just another pedantic political correctness gripe, little in the terms of mass awareness seemed to occur.

Can white symbols on a few people's cheeks really raise awareness? How many people even noticed them, let alone realized what they represented, or, more importantly, cared to ask? What were the organizers hoping to accomplish through such a mild, reserved act of protest? What would it actually take to make a bunch of self-satisfied Yalies headed in a bee-line to successful, capitalism-hugging careers actively bother with any social or political cause?

Perhaps the most disappointing and unfortunately pathetic attempt at large-scale social action on campus occurred in the form of the Take Back the Night "rally" against sexual assault staged a few weeks ago. Being a feminist with a particular interest in the cause and having spoken with a friend who participated in a large and successful Take Back the Night rally in New York City a few months ago, I was looking forward to experiencing Yale's version of youthful hostility and group empowerment. What actually happened demonstrated yet again the frightening level of political and social apathy that seems to rule this campus. With no apparent advertising or recruitment efforts, it was perhaps not surprising that when a small group of students holding banners and intermittently chanting unintelligably wandered through Old Campus at 1 a.m. on a weeknight, most people either did not notice at all or considered the weak shouts an annoyance that was interrupting their studying.

My friend suggested that "there just aren't as many big problems to get excited about now as there were in the '60s." Yet how can he say that when poverty, racism, sexism, and homophobia continue to ravage inner cities and college campuses alike?

It's not that there are fewer problems today or even that they aren't smacking us in the face. It's just that no one really seems to care. And that is sad. It's true that without a rally to go to every weekend we may get in a little more reading or finish a few more problem sets than our parents did. It seems like we should realize that there is more to college, and to life, than Socrates, electrons, and a career in investment banking.

Kate Mason is a freshman in Ezra Stiles

Back to Opinion...