"Terryorism" No Longer a Threat in SOC 342
Members of SATPOR! negotiation team at work.
Students in Terry Jantzi's Social Movements, Revolutions, and Terrorism class organized their own revolution to protest Jantzi's methods of traditional non-experiential forms of learning: namely, their final paper.
The movement, called SATPOR! (Students Against Terryorism Positively Organized Resistance), put in many hours of work outside of class brainstorming and holding meetings, and even formed subcommittees to formulate a pledge of protest, organize negotiations, and contact absentees.
During class on Tuesday, April 12, students protested by pulling their chairs close to the front of the room to encroach on Jantzi's personal space, and "attacked" him intermittently with hugs. They domineered the class discussion that day so that it revolved around their objection to writing the final paper.
On Thursday, students refused to talk to Jantzi for the first 10 minutes of class, then went outside and burned printed copies of the final paper assignment.
Finally, this past Tuesday the 18th, the negotiation team took over class. SATPOR! members wore ties and invited members of the press to record proceedings. Jantzi sat in a comfortable chair with a pitcher of water at a table across from junior Michael Stauffer (SATPOR!'s charismatic leader), second-year Amanda Gross (organizational leader), first-year Annie Johnson, junior Amber Showalter, and senior Kevin Docherty. The discussion became heated on both sides, but there were no serious threats of violence.
Michael Kniss sat at the computer drafting a "Covenant of Experiential Education" that Jantzi and the negotiation team would sign by the end of the class period. The agreement acknowledged the voices of a constituency within the class that disagreed with the revolutionary actions of SATPOR! on the grounds that they showed disrespect to the professor.
In response to Jantzi's grievances, the agreement included a written apology from the students for their disrespect, to be signed and turned in Thursday the 21st.
The agreement also designated Thursday's class period as a time for individuals' reflections on their experience with SATPOR! (including "free riders" and those in opposition). Based on these responses and review of documentation (video, papers, and e-mails) of SATPOR!'s out-of-class work, Jantzi agreed to assign members of SATPOR! a grade for their participation in the movement in place of the grade for their final paper: which is, thanks to SATPOR!'s experiential learning movement, no longer required.
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