Just when college activism seemed dead on college campuses, The Chronicle’s two front-page stories are about University student protesting.

In the late 1960s, youth revolution rocked college campuses across the country as students already impassioned by civil rights, women’s rights and the First Amendment debates witnessed friends die in war and felt the threat of the impending draft. With self-interest as motivation, students launched huge rallies to verbally combat the Vietnam War. At the University, finals were cancelled three years in a row as students’ activism took the place of academics.

A shift to conservatism has existed the last 30 years. Only recently, when University students organized rallies last year to protest the war in Iraq did student activism seem refueled. But even then the protests lacked a united front and it did not feel like everyone was fighting for the same cause. Now of course not everyone is fighting for the two causes protested this week either, but what is notable is the shear number of students at least interested in forming alliances for one objective. The members of InPDUM collected 800 signatures in their attempts to tear down the Thomas Jefferson statue outside the Student Center because he owned black slaves. Their effort was so impressive that the issue will be presented as a referendum on the ballot with the Student Government president elections. Although a small group, InPDUM protestors made their voices heard Wednesday as they occupied the atrium with chants and posters. Two buses of University students attended the women’s rights rally in Washington D.C. Sunday, joining almost a million protestors to preserve the Roe v. Wade decision. University students organized the trip. Radicalism among students is a scary idea for administrators. It means disruption, confusion and debate. But it’s exactly the principles our country was founded on. It’s been too long since the University was shook up by a revolution. Students do so much complaining, but take zero initiative toward change.

And it can work. SAI members protested Citibank and now there is a second bank provider. They also protested Coke and President Rabinowitz has promised to review the contracts when it expires in 2005. The students’ voice is important, but for so many years it has been silenced. Some believe students are too apathetic to take on a cause and others say they are too busy with the expectations on today’s youth. Or maybe they are just scared.

It was so refreshing to hear the chanting of protestors booming through the Student Center or hear tales of the students’ leadership in Washington. Inaction is the most frightening form of action. Students should take the lead of these select students and recognize their responsibility to insist change and question authority.