The Free Speech Movement at University of California at Berkeley was a student protest that happened during 1964 and 1965. The students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students’ right to free speech and academic freedom.The police arrested 773 students for occupying the administration building.
Students won in this movement, and the university chancellor established provisional rules for political activities on the Berkeley campus and opened a discussion area during certain hours of the day. It also made an effort of Ronald Reagan becoming California governor.
The Free Speech Movement had long-lasting effects at the Berkeley campus and was a pivotal moment for the civil liberties movement in The Sixties. Since this event, the students began a wide range of new social movement which had big impacts on the established social system.
Nowadays, we college face similar questions, especially coming from a college like Baruch where the primary focus is to prepare students to meeting the challenges of the business world. Are we really getting a broad liberal arts education as promised to us, or are we just setting ourselves up to meet the corporate demand of big businesses? It’s an important question that I feel every student should ask his or herself.
This picture, although it adequately explains the historical importance of the Movement, leave out an important part of why the movement was so particularly important for the students at the time. College student challenged the academic structure of their schools because they believed they were being cheated out of an education, so to speak. They felt that college wasn’t preparing them to be better citizens of society, but really preparing them for the corporate world they would be entering after college.