Stanford University Archives’ contributions to Project STAND provide broad evidence of a complex and continuous history of Stanford student activism dating back to the 1950s. These collections include photographs, audio and video recordings, publications, university records, faculty papers, organizational records, oral histories, websites, social media, email, and other materials that evidence and illuminate both discrete actions and more general advocacy. Particularly poignant events and activities at Stanford include:
- Anti-war protests, including resistance to the draft and CIA-recruitment on campus, and actions to promote university divestment from the military industrial complex;
- Sit-ins, teach-ins and other actions to promote university divestment from South Africa and other oppressive regimes;
- Protests and other actions to promote university divestment from the fossil fuel industry and promotion of renewable energy sources;
- Actions and advocacy reflecting national and international movements, such as Women’s Marches, the Gay Liberation Movement, and protests against gun violence and immigration bans;
- Hunger strikes and other support for labor strikes and related boycotts, including support for California agricultural workers and minority staff;
- Actions to support the removal of the Indian mascot and introduce the Stanford Powwow to provide a more accurate representation of the diversity of Native American cultures;
- Actions and advocacy to establish a more diverse and inclusive student body, faculty, staff, and administration, such as 1994 Chicanx Hunger Strike, and the more recent “Who’s Teaching Us?” movement;
- Actions and advocacy to establish more diverse and representative curricula, including protests against a western civilization requirement and the development of Stanford Workshops on Political and Social Issues (SWOPSI);
- Actions and advocacy to establish and promote services, spaces, and other support for communities of color, the queer community, and Stanford women, such as the Ten Demands issued by members of the Black Student Union during the 1968 “Taking of the Mic,” protests regarding Stanford’s handling of sexual assault cases, and protests regarding visits by right-wing speakers such as Robert Spencer and Charles Murray.
Activism @ Stanford Online Exhibit
Dates: 1960s – present
Description: This exhibit includes photographs, audio and video recordings, publications, transcripts, and other materials documenting activism at Stanford.
Url: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/activism
Contacts:
Josh Schneider: Assistant University Archivist
Daniel Hartwig: University Archivist
Jenny Johnson: Collections Management and Processing Archivist