One cold morning on South Lawn, several Columbia students and supporters curled up in tents and swore off food in an attempt to effect major changes in University policy.
That was 1996.
Now, 11 years later, that group of protesters watches with tempered hope as another hunger strike unfolds on campus.
Marcel Agueros, CC ’96 and a former hunger striker, said that one major difference between his protest and the current one lies in the administration’s response. “The University essentially ignored us for eight or nine days,” said Agueros, now a postdoctoral fellow in the Columbia astrophysics lab.
In 1996, he went on a 15-day hunger strike for the creation of an ethnic studies program.
Jane Sung E Bai, a Columbia alumna and an organizer of the ’96 protests, said that she finds the current administration’s quicker response encouraging, but that she is not optimistic about the strikers’ chances of realizing their demands. “They [the administration] like to set up a lot of meetings. They like to talk, but they don’t take action.”
She and Agueros said that the administration’s behavior prompted the escalation of their strike into building takeovers, and suggested something similar could occur during the current protest. “The amount of anger that I see here is slightly less than I saw in 1968,” said Paul Spike, CC ’70 and a participant in the ’68 protests, “but the level might grow, and when emotion levels get high, things can escalate.”
Current striker Bryan Mercer, CC ’07, said that there are currently no plans to engage in civil disobedience.
“It would really be the administration’s fault if things escalate,” Bai said. “If the administration delays talks or does anything that is not to meet the demands, the students would have no choice.”
Still, Agueros said that: “the student demands are broad. They’ve hit the University across a broad range of areas, and organizing an administrative response is going to take a little while.”
The advances in technology during the last decade also create a gap between the two protests. While the earlier coalition sent out daily press releases, the current str
ikers publicize their cause largely through their Web site. The hunger strikers have strung power lines across the south lawn and are taking advantage of the University’s Wi-Fi. “I think that, at some level, by being able to post things for yourself, you gain control over what’s being said instead of putting it all in the hands of the media,” Agueros said.
Alumni see their role as one of quiet support. “I really think it’s not for me to judge the demands,” Spike said. “I am inspired by what they’re doing.”
“It’s their movement,” Agueros said. “It’s their response to what they see as fundamental University issues. It’s not my job to tell them what to do—I wouldn’t dare.”