The Latest | Police tell UCLA protesters to disperse or face arrest (2024)

FAQs

Why are college kids protesting? ›

Students across the country are calling on their universities to divest their endowments from Israeli companies or defense companies supplying weapons to Israel. Asking colleges to divest for political or ethical reasons isn't new.

The 1968 Democratic National Convention protests were a series of protests against the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War that took place prior to and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The protests lasted approximately seven days, from August 23 to August 29, 1968.

The report also finds college costs are one of the top three factors driving current college students to consider withdrawing — something 4 in 10 students said they've considered in the past six months. (Emotional stress and mental health were the other two top reasons students thought about leaving school.)

Pandemic aftershocks reverberate

The COVID-19 pandemic was the last major disruptor of college graduations. As the virus spread, social-distancing became the norm, and many schools scrapped their ceremonies to prevent mass infections.

Comparisons with other countries

Despite this, Israel ranks second among OECD countries (tied with Japan and just after Canada) for the percentage of 25- to 64-year-olds that have achieved tertiary education: 46% compared with an OECD average of 32%.

When you make Aliyah, your tuition is almost fully covered by the Student Authority unless you are in a more expensive private English-speaking program, and then they will pay the cost equivalent of public education and you need to cover the rest.

The religious affiliation of the Israeli population as of 2022 was 73.6% Jewish, 18.1% Muslim, 1.9% Christian, and 1.6% Druze. The remaining 4.8% included faiths such as Samaritanism and Baháʼí, as well as "religiously unclassified".

Many Americans opposed the war on moral grounds, appalled by the devastation and violence of the war. Others claimed the conflict was a war against Vietnamese independence, or an intervention in a foreign civil war; others opposed it because they felt it lacked clear objectives and appeared to be unwinnable.

But underlying much of the hippie motivation to reject the “system” was the horror of the war in Vietnam and a corresponding fear of conscription. The draft instantly politicized an entire generation.

Is Vietnam still communist? ›

Vietnam is a socialist republic with a one-party system led by the Communist Party. The CPV espouses Marxism–Leninism and Hồ Chí Minh Thought, the ideologies of Hồ Chí Minh.

Student activism has been prominent on college campuses across the U.S. for generations, from the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War decades ago to more recent protests surrounding Black Lives Matter, the overturn of Roe v. Wade and the latest war between Israel and Hamas.

College campuses became centers of anti-war protest for several reasons. First, the United States had recently welcomed the largest birth cohort in its history; 76 million people were born during the baby boom from 1946 to 1964. Subsequently, college enrollment swelled, from three million in 1960 to 10 million by 1970.

Forcing a person to go to college takes away an important developmental step of taking ownership of one's decisions. It might be important to ask “What else would you like to do, since you have completed high school, and need to move forward?” Maybe they would like to do a year of working and volunteering.

Campus protest or student protest is a form of student activism that takes the form of protest at university campuses.