On Activism and Community in Times of COVID – In Recognition of the SIPA Class of 2021
By Diego Deleersnyder (MIA ’21)
As I approach my graduation from SIPA this coming April, the time has come to assess what this school has meant to me and what I have learned as a student here. Most of my fellow seeples would probably agree that, because of a deadly pandemic that paralyzed the world, our time in school has been radically different than our original expectations. Despite these challenges, SIPA students were able to maintain a sense of community and even organize around campaigns for the common good.
In 2020, COVID-19 spread around the world at a frightening speed, overcrowding hospitals, triggering government-issued lockdowns, forcing businesses to close, and millions of people to lose their jobs. In the US, it was also the year when key presidential elections were held in the midst of unprecedented political turmoil. Against the backdrop of a disproportionate and devastating toll of the pandemic on Black and Latinx communities, the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis in May led to protests against racial violence by security forces around the country and the world. Conversely, President Trump accused the demonstrators of being radical looters trying to undermine law and order in the US.
By then, SIPA students were already on their Summer break. Classes were over until the fall. Many international students went back home to stay with their families and loved ones amid such uncertain times. Those lucky enough to have secured internships despite the lockdown were busy working. Still, even when our SIPA community felt scattered, some of our peers stepped up and took it upon themselves to organize a response to the international tensions that extended beyond the walls of the IAB.
In light of the unrest in the streets, Drashti Brahmbhatt realized that our university could do much more to fight institutional racism. Deeply moved by the Black Lives Matter movement, she rallied and organized a petition over the summer with peers demanding substantial actions towards supporting racial equity in our academic community. This led to meetings with the SIPA administration, which then agreed on some of the proposals, including commitments to pursuing a more diverse faculty and increasing the course offerings on racial issues.
As a New Yorker concentrating in Urban and Social Policy, Brahmbhatt believes that COVID-19 changed activism at SIPA in many ways.
“Having students on campus, sharing one physical space, it was easier to tell each other information, meet up quickly, organize protests and go directly to the administration office. This was no longer possible. However, the silver lining is that technology allowed for increased flexibility, enabling students to participate in more activities and spaces,” says Brahmbhatt. “Another challenge is to ensure that we pass on the knowledge and experience we had to the next classes, who can then act on it.”
Because of this, Brahmbhatt is currently working with peers on a report of achievements in the fight for racial justice at SIPA so far, and what is yet to be done so they can pass it on to first-year students before the class of 2021 graduation. “I will miss being a student and being a student organizer. You know you are doing the right thing. That feeling is exhilarating. It is fun. I will miss working side by side with my friends, people I admire who kept me going.”
Climate change has also been a central concern for students’ mobilization, well before COVID-19 radically changed our lives. For many years, students in the Columbia Divest for Climate Justice group have been pushing the university to align its investment strategy with environmental goals. The pandemic became an obstacle to much-needed open discussions, which would have been easier in person due to the emotional and rational nature of the arguments involved. Nonetheless, in the midst of the lockdown, the university’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing agreed to a proposal that even went beyond the student group’s initial demands, including a clause on achieving a carbon-neutral portfolio by 2050. As a result, at the end of 2020, Columbia University finally announced that it would no longer invest in oil and gas companies, meaning that its $11 billion endowment is now effectively divested from all fossil fuels. As Columbia University’s official statement reads, “the University does not hold any direct investments in publicly traded oil and gas companies, and is formalizing this policy of non-investment for the foreseeable future.”
Ruby Khan, a student from Mumbai, India, joined the Committee in September 2019 as an Advisor. Regarding the impact of the pandemic on student activism, she says: “It is a very stressful time to be an activist. It remains vital to take care of our own mental health because it is such an isolating circumstance, and activists are being asked to do more with very limited mediums, without the possibility of debriefing other people in person.”
However, she concedes that the virtual space has many advantages – especially the ease of disseminating information and arguments – and that leveraging social media tools to support causes has been useful. In a certain way, she says, these platforms have been “a blessing in a curse.”
More recently, in February 2021, the coup d’état in Myanmar became a new pressing topic in the media and at SIPA, too. Saiful Salihudin, a student from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and President of SEASI, the South East Asian Student Initiative, has been one of the most prominent voices against the coup on campus, sharing resources with the academic community, communicating with activists in the field, and calling for action. Among his reasons for joining the campaign, Salihudin considered that it was part of his responsibility as a leader of a student group focused on South East Asia and its diaspora in the SIPA community.
“Over the years, we have seen how [Myanmar] has been progressing from total military dictatorship to a somewhat quasi-democracy, even with a lot of challenges. Additionally, we now have a student from Myanmar, Thet-Htar Thet, who will join our school next fall and who has been a key organizer both on the ground and at SIPA. It is very important that we show our support and solidarity with a member of our own community,” Salihudin says.
Asked how others in the SIPA community can get involved, even with the limitations currently imposed by the pandemic, Salihudin points out that a first step is to be cognizant and aware of the situation in Myanmar, as the military dictatorship tries to cut out communications between the local population and the outside world.
“It is key to support the organization of a civil society movement in Myanmar that keeps the military dictatorship accountable,” he notes. “You can also bring this to the attention of your representatives either by sending emails, making phone calls, or signing petitions online.” More tangible contributions include monetary donations that can support food supply, as well as PPE for civil society organizers.
The challenges now are to keep the fire of activism and commitment to a better world alive in spite of the pandemic’s disruption to the cohesion of our academic community and to pass the responsibility to the new generations of SIPA students. The SIPA Class of 2021 may not have left much of a trace within the classrooms of a locked-down IAB, but it certainly has left a mark outside the building.