American colleges and universities have for years been in the business of training students to be political activists. Participating in protests is practically a rite of passage at some schools, especially for undergraduates and graduate students in the humanities and social sciences. Professors will often encourage their students to attend progressive political events--teach-ins, marches, sit-ins--and will sometimes even cancel class to make it easier for them to do so (last spring, countless campuses held anti-war teach-ins, and countless classes were cancelled by teachers who wanted their students to attend). Some of the more shameless members of the professoriate have even been known to offer extra credit to students who perform certain political tasks--and to deny that same credit to other students whose politics differ from that of the professor (remember Rosalyn Kahn?). Still others try to incite students to protest--last fall at Harvard, an adjunct professor of English sparked the now notorious protests against poet Tom Paulin by sending an email to her students about why they should be offended by him and what they should do to protest his visit. Some schools are more open than others about their mission to educate students in the ways and means of activism--pro-Palestinian martyr Rachel Corrie was the proud product of Evergreen State's explicitly politicized curriculum. A growing number of schools are offering frankly ideological majors in "labor studies." The University of California has recently revised its statement on academic freedom to facilitate and legitimate its ongoing conversion of the classroom into a soapbox.

Still, the vast majority of colleges and universities cling to their images as dispassionate educational institutions where free inquiry and the pursuit of truth reign supreme. They have to--even though in practice they use speech codes, diversity course requirements, and an overwhelmingly liberal faculty to enforce liberal norms of belief and to create a decidedly progressivist campus culture. Their funding and their reputations depend on it. The trouble with this approach, though, is that the image of the dispassionate institution of higher learning committed to the open expression and debate of all ideas is losing its luster (a recent piece in Boston Magazine charts Harvard's self-imposed tarnishing). As the example of Harvard shows, the hypocrisy upon which this lustrous academic image so often rests is becoming ever more visible to a public that is looking more closely at where its tax dollars and tuition money are going than ever before.

One college is navigating this political minefield by simply declaring itself to be an institution devoted to teaching students to be activists. At the New College of California in San Francisco, you can get a degree in "activism and social change." For about $6,000 per semester, you can work toward either a B.A. or a Master's degree in the theory and practice of protest:

"Students can shape their own (activist) program at other schools," said Michael Baer, senior vice president at the American Council on Education and former provost at Northeastern University. "But to have it all together -- the theoretical and the practical -- under one roof and labeled as such is somewhat rare."

Almost as rare is New College's eclectic lineup of activist instructors, a progressive all-star team that includes tree-sitting environmentalist Julia "Butterfly" Hill, "ecofeminist witch" and author Starhawk and San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly.

[...]

Students will study everything from anarchist theory to the civil rights movement. The master's program has a course on globalization, the hot topic in progressive circles.

"We want people to learn how they can be activist and not just someone who is angry and against the system," said Peter Gabel, president emeritus of New College, who plans to teach in the activist program. He is now director of the Institute for Spirituality and Politics.

For applicants a little light on the prerequisites -- a high school degree and at least 45 units of college credit -- New College will consider their "life experience." And no, school officials said, being arrested four times for blocking an intersection isn't what they mean. Admission officials want to see a portfolio of community work, not a rap sheet.

"We're not training rabble-rousers," said Michael McAvoy, a longtime activist and New College's academic vice president. "What we want to do is give people the skills to build sustained social change movements."

We are developing our academic programs and curricula to create pathways for our students to walk toward this better world. We teach of the need to heal from the traumas of living in less than a just, sacred and sustainable world; to resist the further destruction of people, planet and the more than human world; to create alternatives which inspire us to live differently in the world; to change consciousness from an objectifying and reductionist paradigm to one that is holistic and systemic; and finally of the need to overcome the fallacy of the isolated, autonomous individual and recognize the communal and ecological self.

Hat tip to Fred R. and Judith W.

UPDATE: Reader Cameron W. responds:

$6000 a semester to learn to fight the machine that would more than likely be paying for said education in the first place. That is gut-bustingly funny on SO many levels.

Questions come to mind: Would the students be allowed to protest a class they didn't like? Would they get extra credit for doing so?

Then, of course, it's hard not to consider this possible scene: "Hurry! We're studying the value and benefits of anarchy today and attendance counts for 25% of my grade, and the teacher doesn't cut anyone slack!"

Why my state? Why?