During the 1960s, a strange phenomenon took place throughout American colleges and universities: students became concerned with the world around them. Across the country, societal problems were put into focus, and college students wanted to learn how to get involved in the improvement of their country.
One educational arena for young activists was the University “Teach-In.” Across America, students gathered in large settings in order to hear professors, poets, folksingers, and fellow peers speak about the important issues of their day. Teach-ins provided students the opportunity to learn what they did not know about the marginalized citizens of America.
On Thursday Oct. 6, there was a Hurricane Katrina Teach-In here at Fairfield. In the spirit of the 1960s teach-ins that infected American college campuses, the Hurricane Katrina Teach-In provided an opportunity for the students of Fairfield to learn about the most recent event that has changed, and will continue to change, our country.
The teach-in panels included professors of economics, history, sociology, and science. One by one, each professor stood up to teach the audience about the impact that Hurricane Katrina has had on our society. In between each panel session, other professors from New Orleans took the microphone in order to offer a reflection about their lost native city. These reflections taught the audience about the city that was New Orleans, while the panels presented the societal problems that were revealed by Hurricane Katrina.
Event turnout disappointing
Despite the great night of learning that was the Teach-In, there was one negative factor that stuck out in my mind throughout the night: the lack of students. A teach-in will only have an impact if there is an audience to teach.
While Dr. Phil Lane spoke about the numbers involved in Hurricane Katrina, I decided to take a look at the numbers involved in the Hurricane Katrina Teach-In. Of the 200 seats available in the Oak Room that night, 22 were filled. Of those 22 seats that were filled, 10 of them were filled not by students, but by members of the Fairfield Faculty.
So, while a total of 12 professors sat on the panel to raise awareness on the Fairfield Campus, a total of 12 students actually made the time in their busy Thursday night schedule to attend the teach-in. To call this lack of student presence a problem would be a gross understatement. The lack of students at this event was an embarrassment.
Some of the teach-ins of the ’60s were recorded to have almost 20,000 participants and it is said that some lasted up to 36 hours1. This means that 4 Fairfields worth of students sat in an arena for a day and a half in order to become involved in the world around them.
Student apathy offensive
By not showing up to listen to the words of our professors, Fairfield students offended the purpose of the university at large. Do we go to college to learn or do we simply complete our credit requirement and then walk away with a diploma? Were there more important things to do last Thursday night that could not be have been done, or have not already been done, on every other Thursday night throughout the year?
I am sure that the Teach-In did not expect an audience of gigantic proportions; however, the display of student apathy that was expressed by the enormous number of empty chairs speaks volumes about today’s university student.
American students today seem to posses a lack of a yearning to be taught. The students of the 1960s would have given anything to take part in a university-sponsored event that spoke out against injustice. In fact, their need to be heard opened the door for today’s students to become active on campus. What would they say to the students that did not attend the teach-in? The lack of a student presence at the teach-in was a disgrace, and I am sure that very few people even care about my concern.
1 Anderson, Terry. The Movement and the Sixties. Oxford: New York, 1995. 125.
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