Teach-Ins Encourage Campus Activism

The Harvard Democracy Teach-Ins (DTI), a new student group on campus, is planning a series of workshops that they hope may bring back some of the political idealism of Harvard in the 1960s.

Formed by a core group of about 40 students just before winter break, DTI is an offshoot of UNITE and part of a larger nationwide student movement that began at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in February of 1996.

The workshops, scheduled for the first week of March, will focus on issues such as education, health care, the media and foreign policy. Each workgroup in DTI is responsible for putting together its teach-in.

"Our primary goals are to find inter-connection between different social groups on campus and bring out people who don't usually think about social activism," said Melvin V. Priester '01, a contact person for DTI and a member of the identity politics and fragmentation workgroup.

"The main problem is that we're too focused on our little world at Harvard," he added.

DTI plans to use somewhat unconventional methods to reach out to its audience. The health care workgroup, for instance, will present an outdoor street skit about someone denied adequate health care because of excessive bureaucracy and HMOs to draw attention from passers-by.

"It will be entertaining as well as educational," said Paul M. Monteleoni `01, a member of DTI.

According to the national DTI web site at www.corporations.org/democracy, one of the realities of today's campus activism is that while hundreds of thousands of student activists are involved in many diverse struggles, it has no common focus.

The group promises to work to create a dialogue between activist groups around the nation to achieve some unity of action. That is what the events in March are intended to foster.

"There are many mechanisms at Harvard for social action such as the Phillips Brooks House," Priester said, "and what DTI does is that it creates dialogue to motivate students to take up the mechanisms."

The first DTI occurred in February 1996 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Since then, DTI groups have blossomed on campuses around the U.S. and around the world.

This year, according to the DTI web site, the DTIs are particularly focused on the corporatization of colleges and universities that they say had led to loss of student power on campuses.

However, the organization says it encourages the autonomy of local groups and does not determine their format or content.

The Harvard DTI group said they expect their audience primarily to be, but not limited to, Harvard students.

"Since we're the only campus in Cambridge hosting the Teach-In, hopefully we will attract other college students in the area," said Ben D. Tolchin `01, another member of the identity politics work group.

Priester said that there is no hierarchy or leadership attached to DTI. Anyone can join, he added.

"We don't have titles," he said. "People have been dividing up labor, and no one is taxed with being the official leader, because we'd like to be democratic in spirit and in process."