Do you agree with either of these statements from
Sam Graham-Felsen's new piece
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050801&
s=graham-felsen
about the 2005 Campus Progress National Student
Conference:
1. "The conference left students, from Young
Democrats to radical activists, energized and
teeming with hope. Almost everyone I spoke with
left the conference believing that a real,
thriving, broad-based progressive student
movement--whatever that might come to mean--was
overdue, necessary, and most importantly,
possible. "
2. "For the most part, critical dialogue was in
short supply, and the promotion of strategic
tactics--rather than strong principles--seemed to
rule the day. Instead of identifying the values
with which to forge a movement, the speakers at
the conference seemed obsessed over the forging
itself.... It would be unfair to retroactively
rename the event the Campus Centrists National
Student Conference, but the lack of a radical
student presence was impossible to ignore for an
event that billed itself as progressive. Virtually
every student I spoke with considered Clinton a
genuine "progressive," and his message of finding
common ground with ideological opponents seemed to
have resonated profoundly."
Following the 1st Campus Progress National Student Conference and a convention in my home state, I'm just starting to recover. DC is something else. And this Conference is something else. I met so many people who have done and are doing work all across this country that is great. And I met even more with plans in the works to do even better work.
I finally met, in person, friends like Asheesh and Ezra. I made new friends. I missed some people that I would like to have met (with 600 people, it would be near-impossible to catch them all). What can you do?
Still, I'm incredibly impressed by how the whole event came off. If you only watch one video of the conference, make sure you check out the opening panel on the battle of ideas. The panelists did a great job. If you watch another, watch the one on economic policy. I'm looking forward to downloading the videos of the panels I couldn't be at.
At this point, though, now that we've had an opportunity to look back, what would you want done differently? The greatest thing about blogs is that they allow for the dialogue, so, please, jump in and tell the folks at the Center what you would want to see done differently next year.
Talking to others, I can say that one of the frequent complaints was that there wasn't enough...time. The day we had was packed, fun, emotional, and exhausting. But we've got hundreds and thousands of young leaders across this country seeking skills and education to go out and do good work. One day was not enough.
One of my other concerns was that the skill trainings were all related to communications. All four were great and loaded with excellent panelists, but where were the basics of campus organizing, the Student Government Elections 101, or the live version of Nico Pitney's guide to quick, dirty, and great research.
These are some of my thoughts and thoughts I heard from others I met with.
What are yours?
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!
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050801& s=graham-felsen
about the 2005 Campus Progress National Student Conference:
1. "The conference left students, from Young Democrats to radical activists, energized and teeming with hope. Almost everyone I spoke with left the conference believing that a real, thriving, broad-based progressive student movement--whatever that might come to mean--was overdue, necessary, and most importantly, possible. "
2. "For the most part, critical dialogue was in short supply, and the promotion of strategic tactics--rather than strong principles--seemed to rule the day. Instead of identifying the values with which to forge a movement, the speakers at the conference seemed obsessed over the forging itself.... It would be unfair to retroactively rename the event the Campus Centrists National Student Conference, but the lack of a radical student presence was impossible to ignore for an event that billed itself as progressive. Virtually every student I spoke with considered Clinton a genuine "progressive," and his message of finding common ground with ideological opponents seemed to have resonated profoundly."