Mother Always Knows

The new issue of Mother Jones (Sept.-Oct.) arrived over the weekend, with its 10th annual listing of the "Top 10 Activist Campuses." When I think of campus activism, I think old school: Berkeley and Columbia. In fact, I had begun to think that large-scale student activism was a thing of the past. Sure, you can always count on enviros and PIRGs to stir things up, but I hadn't really heard about any groundswells coming from colleges – until I saw this list.

Showing up in the number four spot is hometown favorite Howard University, for putting 2,000 students onto the steps of the Supreme Court to uphold affirmative action this past spring.

Columbia didn't even make the list, but New York University students put their urban campus at number three, for "crashing MTV's 'Total Request Live' in October and flashing their 'No War in Iraq' T-shirts before being hauled off camera. And later that month, 11 NYU students slipped past their tour guide at the United Nations and disrupted the General Assembly with anti-war chants."

Oldtime favorite Berkeley did not disappoint, with a spot at number nine for its 1,500 students who protested as the war with Iraq began, demanding that the University of Baghdad be declared a sister school. But the real surprise was at the top of the list: the University of Tehran, for "unflinching dissent in a nation where speaking out can lead to imprisonment, or worse."

Here's Mother Jones' Top 10 Activist Campuses:

1. University of Tehran
2. California Community Colleges
3. New York University
4. Howard University
5. University of Michigan
6. James Madison University
7. University of Chicago
8. St. Joseph's University
9. UC Berkeley
10. Yale University