Abstract and Bibliography

Abstract

Protest has been the tool of choice for the powerless for centuries. People have always disagreed with government type oppositions and through numbers, they are able to put up a fight. But what happens when the amount of people a demonstration has plays no factor on the outcome? What if the battle being fought cannot be won? A protest does not guarantee results and it is not definite that protesters will get what they are fighting for. This seems to be the case with the past and present protests on rising tuition costs. State Universities and State Governments are constantly shutting down students and making it more difficult for student protesters to achieve their goal of lower tuition costs. One can argue that this would discourage students from even trying to change the system, but students are still pushing forward.
Through this research, the present day protests on tuition rates as well as those of the past, are analyzed to see if there is anything obtained through protest. There is no certainty with respect to the outcome of a protest. Students are fighting for what they believe in, but that doesn't mean that they will get what they are asking for. Through the act of protest, students learn key characteristics that will be beneficial to them later on in life. These characteristics are awareness, leadership, determination and organization. These four attributes are all taken from participating in protest and it is there where students are learning to become well rounded individuals. The experience creates intellectuals out of ordinary college students and teaches them to look at issues through all angles. So, if students are ultimately unsuccessful in achieving their primary goal through protest (lower tuition rates), they are still the ones who come out on top. The skills that are obtained through their actions will be beneficial to them as they carry on with their lives. The experience itself causes the students to be the overall winners of the process known as protest.

Bibliography

Altbach, Philip G., and Robert Cohen. "American Student Activism: The Post-Sixties
Transformation." The Journal of Higher Education 61.1 (1990): 32-49. Print.

Friend, Tad. “Protest Studies.” The New Yorker (January 4, 2010) 22-28. Print.
Gilmore, Janet. "UC Berkeley Protests: Tuition Hikes." E-mail interview. 31 Mar. 2010. Print.

Hanley, Robert. "Rutgers Students' Sit-In Turns Mellow." The New York Times 11 May 1990.Print.

Kaplan, Howard B., and Xiaoru Liu. "Social Protest and Self-Enhancement: A Conditional Relationship." Sociological Forum 15.4 (2000): 595-616. Print.

Lipsky, Michael. "Protest as a Political Resource." The American Political Science Review62.4 (1968) 1144-58. Print.

McCormick, Richard L. "Athletics and Rutgers Stadium." Letter to Rutgers Community. 12 Dec. 2008. Web.

Schussman, Alan, and Sarah A Soule. "Process and Protest: Accounting for Individual Protest Participation." Social Forces. N.p.: University of North Carolina Press , 2005. 1083-1108. JSTOR. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. Print.

Statehouse Bureau Staff. "N.J. Gov. Chris Christie's Spending Cut Plan Key Points | - NJ.com." New Jersey Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - NJ.com. 11 Feb. 2010. Web.

Rhoads, Robert A. "Student Protest and Multicultural Reform: Making Sense of Campus Unrest in the 1990s." The Journal of Higher Education 69.6 (1998): 621-46. Print.

Wollan, Malia. "Students Protest Tuition Increase." The New York Times 20 Nov. 2009. Print.

Story #14

At the beginning my topic was very broad. I wanted to cover college protest as a whole, but did not realize how much research that actually entailed. I felt as if i was capable of doing so, but found out soon on that it would be almost impossible to write a research paper that covered every college protest with no direction. So i narrowed down my options with the second paper. I compared random college protests from the past to the present ones. I felt fine with this direction, but then at a certain point realized it was not the direction i wanted to go in. With a little more research on the topic i found that i wanted to follow tuition costs and the reaction students had to them. I took a protest that happened at Rutgers university on rising tuition costs and compared it to the most recent ones in California. I compared the way the students went about it and the politics that surrounded the issue. I feel like this will be my final direction because it definitely drives my curiosity and it is a very common issue among college students.

My biggest influence for this paper has been the protests at UC Berkeley in California. There was so much media surrounding it that it would have been wrong not to go along with that topic. This also helped me with learning about the research process. You need to use everything at your disposal to make your point and support your thesis. I have not yet come up with a concrete thesis but, as is the research, it is a working progress. I feel with every draft that i compose, i come closer and closer to a more concrete topic.

Visual- Loree Hall

This is a writing done in chalk outside of Loree Hall. If this is not a sign of what is to come then i don't know what is. This is a sign that students at Rutgers University are not going to take these budget cuts lightly. We are going to see protest on campus very soon that can arguably be compared to that of UC Berkeley. Tuition prices are set to rise because of the lack of funding from the state. So, students are getting ready to assemble at Brower hall on College Avenue on April 21st. This could be the start of a revolt larger than anything Rutgers University has seen in the past.

Outline

I. Introduction
A. College and its purpose
B. The relationship the state has with state colleges.
C. Students protest high tuition rates
D. State Budget Cuts
E. Introduction of Authors

II. Rutgers Protest 1992
A. Students protest
1. What they did.
2. Who they were protesting against.
B. Why the students protested.
1. State budget cuts
2. Raising tuition costs
C. Success of the protest
1. Did the students succeed
2. What was achieved from the protest

III. UC Berkeley Protests 2009-present
A. Students protest
1. What they did
2. Who they are protesting against
B. Why the students are protesting
1. State budget cuts
2. Tuition increase
C. Progress of the protest
1. Progress that the students are making
2. Current status of the protest

IV. Comparison of the two protests
A. Similarities between the protests
1. Similar techniques that were used
2. Similar topic
B. Differences between the protests
1. Differences in demeanor of the protesters
a. Aggressive v.s. Non Aggressive
2. Differences in techniques

V. Present financial situation and Conclusion
A. State cuts on state universities
B. What this means for state schools across the country
C. The possibility of countrywide protest
D. The affect that budget cuts will have on present day Rutgers
E. How Rutgers students will react

The Case

The case in this research will be all the schools that have been protesting over an increase in tuition costs, primarily UC Berkley. With that I would like to see how often this type of protest happens with this university. Tuition is constantly an issue and with the times the way they are, it will not get any better. This is the student’s point of view which was mentioned in my previous post. I will be analyzing the way students see tuition increases and how they react to it. Many students have made it clear the way they feel about their tuition rising. The question that comes into play here is: Is education worth the investment? With tuitions rising, higher education becomes questioned. A majority of my research deals with the most recent protests at UC Berkeley. It incorporates the reasons and the different ways students have decided to take a stand.

The Debate

The debate here that I have identified is the constant battle that universities face every day; affordability. State schools are losing money from governments on a daily basis which raises student concern. From the loss of money, schools have no other choice but to look at privatizing their "industry". This can be looked at in two different ways. The first being that the school is doing this to save itself from going under; "desperate times call for desperate measures". The second way to look at this would be the way that students perceive this action. The mere action of privatizing a school will lead to higher tuition costs. This is what students see when they hear that their state funded university is looking for outside contributors. When these views come together, the outcome is protest. This has been going on for many years across the country in almost every single state university. Students are paying more money every year for their "state funded education". But, if state governments keep cutting funds, how will schools stay afloat? Can people blame state schools for trying to privatize? This is the debate I’d like to address and how this battle between the institution known as college and its students, has evolved over time.

Post 8

My biggest problem is finding sources that have a lot to do with my topic. I have about 3 solid scholarly sources that will really help me in writing my paper but it seems that many of the other sources i have come across, will only contribute a little bit. I would like to find some more well rounded sources. That is basically my main problem. I feel that i have most of the other things under control.