In the end the students were arrested, and the issues they fought for are still open wounds. Pat Brown, director of Student Life, has followed UVM student activism with more than casual interest. There are peak times when people see it happening a lot. But beneath that peak, the change process is going on the whole time. I believe it's part of a college education to empower people to make history.
Student activists are, almost by definition, impatient.
And it's often hard to judge the effect you had when you've just come out of the thick of it. But there's no doubt that UVM is a different place today in large measure because of the protesters' push. Sororities are no longer segregated, the school gave up its investments in South Africa, and there are far more minority students and faculty on campus than in Crystal Brown's day. Student activists have consistently led the way toward a fairer, more humane institution. To learn more about individual activists, read the stories on the following pages, briefly told, of four of UVM's student activists.