Events & Calendars "How Did That Make You Feel? Student Protest and the Psychologizing of Politics at the Administrative University"

Last fall's campus demonstrations reflected strong student dissatisfaction with contemporary universities, especially on questions of race and gender. But the protests also demonstrated the modern tendency to frame politics in psychological terms, which often do not yield themselves to sustained debate and discussion. Whereas an earlier generation of campus protesters called for less administrative oversight and regulation, today's students want to increase it. Almost every attack on "the administration" involved a demand for more (underscored) administrators, to conduct diversity training, manage sexual assault cases and so on. University protesters and administrators have become the odd couple of the modern campus, feeding each other in an endless cycle of hope and despair.