The 10 Most Politically Active College Campuses

Colleges have long been hot spots for political movements and demonstrations. In fact, protests have been woven into the fabric of college campuses for hundreds of years. Historians may recall the Great Butter Rebellion, which took place at Harvard University in 1766. At that time, students sparked a food fight to protest being served butter that “stinketh” — and, really, who could blame them?

Two hundred years later, campus protests set a new precedence. Students at the University of California, Berkeley, staged monthslong free speech protests in 1964 and 1965, through which they insisted the university lift its ban on campus political activities.

In 1968, San Francisco State College’s Black Student Union organized a strike calling on the school to admit more Black students. Then on May 4, 1970, the fateful anti-Vietnam War protest took place at Kent State University, where the National Guard killed four students.

Many of these protests — though riddled with tragedy — led to positive changes. Even today student activism remains alive and well on college campuses.

The University of Missouri protests against racism in 2015 became a pivotal moment that inspired other protests across the country. In 2019, college students around the world participated in a global climate strike to pressure leaders to be more proactive with their climate change policies.

If you’re looking to attend a college that values student activism and social awareness, consider applying to the schools below.

The Claremont Colleges are a group of private undergraduate institutions based near Los Angeles. The largest school, Pomona College, enrolls about 1,600 students. Even though their student bodies are small, these colleges impress when it comes to demonstrations.

Twenty years ago, Claremont students marched from Pitzer College to Pomona, demanding the schools commit to better working conditions for cafeteria employees. Two decades later, over 200 students painted signs with slogans such as “Put your money where your mouth is!!!” when Pitzer withheld scholarship money from an undocumented DACA student.

Earlier this year as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the U.S., student demonstrations successfully urged Pomona to allow around 100 low-income, first-generation students to stay on campus.

The New York City-based Ivy League institution made national headlines in 1968, when students protested against what would essentially be a segregated gym. “Stop Columbia’s Gym Crow,” posters read — a clear play on the discriminatory Jim Crow laws of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Student activism at Columbia continues today. Hundreds of doctoral students went on strike this spring to advocate for canceled rent during the pandemic. They also demanded an increase in research stipends and an extra year for their degrees to make up for lost time due to COVID-19.

After Black Lives Matter protests spread across the U.S. this summer, many students called on colleges to rename buildings named for historical figures with ties to slavery. Columbia was one of these schools, agreeing to rename a residence hall originally christened for Samuel Bard, a slave owner and doctor.

Like Harvard, Yale boasts a track record of student activism. In 2015, students made the news for protesting after what they considered an insensitive response from a Yale lecturer concerning a Native American Halloween costume.

Despite being historically rivals, in 2019 activists from both Yale and Harvard joined forces to call attention to climate change. Students stormed the field at the historic Harvard-Yale football game, calling on their universities to divest their endowments from high-polluting companies.

TCU’s tradition of student activism dates back to 1963, when students petitioned for the campus library to open on Sundays. In the 1980s, their focus took a more global turn when Students for a Democratic South Africa rallied for the university’s divestment in South Africa during apartheid.

This June, TCU students, faculty, and staff joined many across the country in protesting police brutality. But those weren’t the first anti-racism demonstrations on campus in 2020. Just a few months earlier, students called for the removal of a faculty member who had allegedly physically and verbally abused a student.

For Columbia-based Mizzou, 2015 was a big year. Anti-racism demonstrations had been occurring on Mizzou’s campus since 2014, when unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by a police officer in nearby Ferguson. But these protests escalated in 2015.

A student group called Concerned Student 1950 camped out on a campus lawn to protest the administration’s lackluster response to these racist incidents. Later, the football team went on strike in support of the activists, prompting the university president to step down.

Mizzou students rallied for many other reasons as well that year. Graduate students staged a walk-out when they were told without warning that the university would no longer subsidize their health insurance. Students also demonstrated against laws that would eventually lead to the end of abortion services in Columbia.

This September, student-athletes took the torch once more and planned a march and sit-in against police brutality.