From Hong Kong to the US, campuses are where real change takes root, so let the dialogue begin

David Oxtoby says students on both sides of the Pacific have grappled with tough social and political issues, and calls on academic leaders to create healthy environments for meaningful debate on divergent ideas

Reading Time:4 minutes

Published: 5:05pm, 26 Oct 2016Updated: 8:33pm, 26 Oct 2016

Students want deep and immediate change right now. What can we do – especially those of us charged with teaching tomorrow’s leaders – to create healthy environments that will facilitate important and long-overdue change? Illustration: Craig Stephens

During the past few years, young people on both sides of the Pacific have been in the vanguard of movements focusing on racial, ethnic, and socio-economic discrimination, and academic and political freedom.

In Hong Kong, student protesters in the “umbrella movement” occupied the city’s commercial districts for three months in 2014, and have continued to press their causes, with five Occupy activists elected to the Legislative Council in September.

Dozens of US universities stage rallies in support of Hong Kong’s protesting students

On campuses across the United States over the last year, students have grappled with issues of racial and economic discrimination and inequality, campus sexual assault, and free speech. Students of colour came together last year as part of the national movement, “Black Lives Matter”. Student protests have demanded the firing of college leaders, including presidents, and some of those efforts have been successful. Adding fuel to campus unrest in the US has been a presidential election campaign that has included intolerance for different viewpoints and even hate speech.

Pennsylvania State University students stage a “die-in” as they take part in a “Black Lives Matter” protest in 2014. Photo: TNS

With the parallels across the Pacific, there are also important differences. Demands in Hong Kong focus on national-level issues, such as the relationship of Hong Kong and China, while US student demands (though driven by national concerns) focus on campus-level issues, such as bias in the classroom and lack of diversity among faculty and staff.

A false opposition is sometimes set up between inclusivity and free speech; these are core values, not in conflict with one another

Students want deep and immediate change right now. They criticise our responses to their concerns for being too little and too slow. Tensions can escalate, disrupting civil discourse and hardening the positions of groups with opposing views. What can we do – especially those of us charged with teaching tomorrow’s leaders – to create healthy environments that will facilitate important and long-overdue change?