Title: What do you demand from your education?

Context/Objectives: I developed this activity for a two-day peer mentoring workshop, organized by the Futures Initiative, which brought students from across the CUNY system to the Graduate Center to talk about student empowerment, leadership, and support networks.

Type: In-class activity

Time: 45 minutes

Lesson: After reviewing the history of student activism and protest at CUNY (one campus, or university-wide) and introducing students to the history of Open Admissions, this activity uses the five demands of the 1969 student strike and asks students to reflect on what they “demand” from their educational institution.

• I have students read through some events on this timeline (created by students in my spring 2015 Introduction to Narrative course) to familiarize themselves with some moments in CUNY history.
• We then discuss open admissions, and watch this video in which the Chancellor of CUNY defends the initiative.

• The Five Demands (from Conor Tomas Reed, “‘Treasures that Prevail’: Adrienne Rich, the SEEK Program, and Social Movements at the City College of New York, 1968 – 1972.”)
  

Prompt: Using the Five Demands of the student strike as an example, craft a list of five things that you demand from your education.

Additional Resources:

• Conor Tomas Reed, “‘Treasures that Prevail’: Adrienne Rich, the SEEK Program, and Social Movements at the City College of New York, 1968 – 1972.” (Read here.)

Contributed by: Danica Savonick