Campus Activism and Organizing: Past, Present and Future

Topics

Event Description

The role that universities play in social transformation has always been imbued with contradictions. On one hand, campuses serve as critical sites for radical re-imaginings of the world, community mobilization, and organizing. At the same time, the institutional structures that govern these campuses are often placed into an antagonistic and even counterinsurgent relationship to this work.

On February 11, 2026, this panel conversation brought together academic organizers to explore the importance of campus activism in troubled times. Panelists examined how universities have historically responded to social movements on college campuses, how contemporary technologies and policies further constrain community organizing, and how growing federal pressures are shaping our campus response to activism.

Panelists also shared lessons and strategies for building power in an era of growing job and academic insecurity, sustaining spatial and institutional memory despite constant turnover and erasure, and ensuring the future of organizing through material aid and survival projects. This was the beginning of an ongoing conversation on how we can respond and mobilize in this time of precarity and an intensifying landscape of repression.

Event Speakers:

Moderator: Laleh Behbehanian, Faculty, Department of Sociology, UC Berkeley

Panelist: Colleen Lye, Faculty, Department of English and Faculty & Chair of Asian American Research Center (AARC), UC Berkeley
Panelist: Elisa Huerta, Associate Vice Chancellor, Community Engagement & Transformative Care, UC Berkeley
Panelist: Kaneesha Goyal, UC Berkeley Alum; Former Program Assistant, American Cultures Center, UC Berkeley
Panelist: Tony Platt, Distinguished Affiliated Scholar, UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society; Professor Emeritus, Sacramento State University
Panelist: Dylan Rodriguez, Distinguished Professor, Department of Black Study, Department of Media and Cultural Studies; Co-Director of the Center for Ideas and Society, UC Riverside

Event Co-hosts

This current conversation extends and builds from the Teaching in Troubled Times workshop series offered by the American Cultures Center, Center for Teaching and Learning, and Division of Equity & Inclusion.

The university regime, and that as a totality and the University of California apparatus in particular, are historical theaters of warfare.

Dylan Rodriguez

The Necessity of Collaboration between Campus and Community Activism

[00:10:32] Solidarity between communities and campus activists is “a two-way street that flows to and from the university.” - Tony Platt

[00:30:20] Connecting student and community activism is crucial to the longevity of social movements. Due to student turnover, movements can often be manipulated or disappear once key student organizers have graduated. Through withstanding community connections and partners, continuity is not contingent on individual students. - Kaneesha Goyal

[00:31:40] One case study of reciprocal support was during the Free Palestine encampment. The community not only lended material support through food, tents, and other resources, but they also contributed strategic knowledge and encouragement. This is one instance of how learning from and with communities can be embodied and put into practice. - Kaneesha Goyal

Cultural and Political Movements are Intertwined

[00:11:07] The power of the university is predicated on the dissolution of cultural innovation, especially within free public third spaces. Thus, the revitalization of campus based movement activism relies on a rejoining of the cultural with the political. “I’ve learned that successful political struggles are cultural and that cultural movements are political” - Tony Platt

The Impact of Commodification and Monetization on Critical Thought

[00:12:50] Commodification culture has sanitized “the most vital and vigorous neighborhoods” in Berkeley, some examples being Telegraph Avenue and Peoples Park [00:32:44] . This has created one monolithic identity, where the city of Berkeley is equated solely with the university.

[00:16:10] The University has been a site where one could “pursue ideas free from the pressure of immediate monetization,” however, this is shifting. The ability of professors to critically teach and the ability of students to critically learn are both impacted by the university’s neoliberal financial interests - Colleen Lye

[00:29:38] The university works to commodify radical activism by “transforming social movements into historical objects, rather than contemporary struggles.” To keep momentum, it is vital to resist this neutralization. - Kaneesha Goyal

[00:59:40] In ways, the university is taking on a “Trumpian economics approach to the current moment”, as in “How can we turn Berkeley into a cash race?” This approach should be brought into question. - Tony Platt

There is Historical Precedent for the Current Moment

[00:59:50] It is not in our best interest to claim that this is a moment like we have never seen before. The university is actively continuing patterns, but perhaps even more openly.

[01:05:05] "I think in a lot of ways the tactics of the university have not actually changed, and we have just become so accustomed to bowing down to them that we are not actually questioning that we have so much to give, each and every one of us.” - Kaneesha Goyal

The Univeristy is an Active and Ongoing Site of Repression

[00:37:36] “The University of California apparatus in particular, are historical theaters of warfare,” which means that they are not only complicit, but active perpetrators of epistemic, ideological, and militarized violence. Rather than exceptional or individualized, these are symptomatic struggles. - Dylan Rodriguez

[00:38:29] In addition to being active perpetrators of globalized violence, they also act as hubs for counter-insurgency strategies. Examples include militarized police presence, surveillance technologies, and profiling.- Dylan Rodriguez

[00:46:02] This is an infrastructure purposefully geared toward demoralization. Keeping insurgency and unrest small and manageable to serve the university’s interests. - Dylan Rodriguez

Stay Grounded in the Process

[00:23:21-00:25:18] “Many of our projects are tenuous projects.” In order to stay organized, we must treat this work as ongoing, not assuming that one win guarantees its longevity. This is how we stay “rigorous and grounded” - Elisa Huerta

Hold Space for Grief

[00:28:36] Hold space for grief and losses to stay curious about what can come after - Elisa Huerta

Attentive to Comprehensibility in Scope and Scale

[00:51:12] With so many co-existing losses, it is crucial to not view them as isolated or siloed incidents because that distracts from the root causes of these interconnected systems. How can this be thought about comprehensively, both with scope and scale? - Elisa Huerta

Strategic Relationship Building

[01:10:16- 01:11:42] Honestly assess our situation, both interpersonal and intrapersonal. There is a paradox between “textual radicals and functional liberals,” and this has to be honestly identified in order to build power. “We need to wake up and ask ourselves, how can I not be a liberal” - Dylan Rodriguez

Decentralized Struggle

[1:23:52] “The struggle against normalization is about a struggle against the legitimacy of these existing structures.” This can involve an embrace of decentralized forms of struggle and a destruction imperative rooted in abolition. - Dylan Rodriguez

Abolitionist Reform vs. Reformist Reform

[1:26:00] Abolitionist reforms are concerned with shifting power and decreasing the size of the apparatus while reformist reforms are bandaid solutions/alternatives that help to maintain the size of the apparatus - Kaneesha Goyal

Do not see the boundaries of the university as the boundaries of your organizing.

Kaneesha Goyal

Third World Liberation Front

This site preserves the legacy of the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) at UC Berkeley, showcasing a collection of teaching materials, events, and timelines documenting their movements and connections. The TWLF’s role in the history of student organizing – particularly its focus on solidarity and liberation – is highlighted here, including a discussion on collective organizing principles.

TWLF Communiqué #7, February 21, 1969

A key Third World Liberation Front's communiqué from 1969 that includes one of the principles discussed by one of the panelists. This documents offers a revealing glimpse into organizing directives, including: "BE COOL AVOID THE POLICE RIOT 1) BE COOL. 2) NO VIOLENCE INITIATED BY OUR SIDE. 3) ALL PICKET LINES WILL REMAIN PEACEFUL AND LEGAL AT ALL TIMES. 4) NO ROCK-THROWING..." Read more

"What I've Learned" by Tony Platt

In his historical grounding document, Tony Platt explains: "To be an activist in academia requires knowledge about how a university is governed and empowered, and about legacies of protest movements. I’ve been studying the history of Berkeley. What have I learned?" Read More

During the event, panelists asked: how often do we talk about individual cases as parts of strategic systems, not just isolated occurrences? The events they mentioned included: Solidarity with Peyrin Kao, Solidarity with Casey Goonan, UC Berkeley Shares 160 Names with Federal Government, Berkeley City Council Considerations to Loosen Limits on Tear Gas and Other Police Weapons, SJP's Request to Remove Free Palestine Encampment collection, Students Charged with Felonies for TPUSA Protest

Our greatest power on this campus lies in our solidarity with each other.

Laleh Behbehanian