Last week, while attending a protest calling on Brown to reject the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” I noticed one oddly familiar face among the crowd: my professor. Even hours later, I couldn’t get that sight out of my head — and for good reason. Watching my professor rally around the same cause I care deeply about made me realize that faculty participation in campus advocacy can bring students and professors closer together.
As a first-year student, I have caught on to just how different student-professor relationships are in comparison to the student-teacher relationships of high school. Where I once saw my teachers every day, I now only see them one to three times a week. In college, classes can be so large that the task of forming a relationship with my professor feels impossible — after all, I’m just another face in the crowd. This issue, however, runs both ways. What was missing was not how I was being perceived, but how I was perceiving my professors.
After the protest, that divide closed a bit. By running into that professor, I realized two things: that we share similar interests and ideologies, but more importantly that professors are interested in voicing their opinions on campus just as much as students are.
Protests are generally viewed as a student activity. A large number of students will at some point or another attend a protest, and protests are generally viewed as a staple of the college experience. But the influence that professors — the University’s most permanent residents — have on campus culture is not to be overlooked. When our professors make their political voices heard, they are reminding us they are just as much a part of the University community as students are. More empowering than seeing that my professors and I lie on the same side of the political spectrum is simply knowing that they interact with political issues in the same way that I do. Mutual political participation helps to build a cohesive community on campus.
Such a connection is vital in allowing students to fully reap the rewards of a college education. Students who feel connected to their professors are more likely to engage with and retain information from classes. These effects are especially important considering the academic rigor of a school like Brown. The University is currently ranked second in undergraduate teaching according to U.S. News and World Report, and the freedom of the Open Curriculum entices many students to take several incredibly challenging courses a semester. When students see our professors involved in our campus community, it’s easier to build the immersive connections that help us succeed academically in college.
A small connection at a demonstration can also serve as a springboard to a deeper student-faculty relationship, helping students find guidance in their academic and personal endeavors. Professors can often become lifelong connections, mentors or friends. In finding even a small point of common ground, students might feel more comfortable fostering a relationship with their instructors.
The power of commonality in catalyzing connection is especially pertinent in light of the anxiety that students often feel in initiating a student-professor relationship. Knowing that their professors share the same values as them can empower students who might otherwise refrain from reaching out. The simple act of making an effort to reach out to a professor is both the most important — and often the most difficult — step of the process. But it goes both ways: While students need to make that step in reaching out, our professors should make their first step in showing that they are part of the Brown community, too.
And in the current climate, this unity is more necessary than ever. While Brown stood against the compact, it was not the Trump administration’s first attempt to exert control over Brown’s campus, and it likely will not be the last. Any restrictions on academic freedom of expression — like those proposed in the compact — would harm Brown’s educational offerings. Faculty and students must bridge the divide between their worlds in order to strengthen our community against the uncertain future of academic freedom.
Avery Kaak ’29 can be reached at avery_kaak@brown.edu. Please send responses to this column to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
