Last Saturday morning, I awoke to the sounds of protest. The State College population gathered in Sidney Friedman Park to participate in the nationwide Hands Off rallies. Homemade signs in hand, hundreds of people filled the park to fight back against Donald Trump’s recent administrative actions.
The crowd consisted of a strange demographic for a college town. There were small children and a range of middle-aged to elderly people, but few people could pass for students. Only one group of young girls–dressed for a fraternity party–passed through the event.
Echoes in the Hallway
Trump’s recent executive orders center around dismantling the Department of Education. He’s cut funding for institutions, threatening scientific research and innovation. Trump could aim these cuts at Penn State any time he wants.
So far, college administrations have done little to resist the government’s requests. Jobs and budgets appear to hold more value than Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. There is little advocacy on behalf of student-life as we know it.
If our university might face an imminent threat, why didn’t Penn State students participate in protesting against it?
The Cost of Free Speech
Since their inception, college campuses have served as spaces where civil unrest unravels. With innovative ideas and constant life change floating around in the heads of students, it makes sense that universities often host protests.
Sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s originated with four students at North Carolina’s A&T University. In spring of 2024, Columbia university was the center of protests against the administration’s funding the war in Gaza. Students camped out, were arrested and suspended in the name of human rights.
One of the organizers of that protest, Mahmoud Khalil, now faces threats of deportation. Despite simply exercising his right to free speech, policy makers believe that he poses adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.
Are these punishments against student activism what is barring Penn State students from wanting to participate in civil disobedience?
The Case for Civil Disobedience
The threats posed on Saturday morning were minimal. Two police officers rode by on bicycles. One man sat in his Jeep, pestering passers-by. He emerged only once to perform his rendition of Donald Trump’s favorite dance. Generally, though, there were no threats taken out against this expression of resistance.
Trump’s administration clearly sees student activism as a threat to his plans of destroying the value of education. As current university students, we hold a certain power over the future of affairs. Using our voices in civil disobedience is a traditional way to exert this power in a beneficial way, and it is time for us to honor it.
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