Over the years, San José State has seen powerful student protests, from efforts to hold faculty accountable to strong opposition against the rollback of Roe v. Wade, marking key moments in the fight for reproductive rights on campus.
SJSU has a deep-rooted history of activism, particularly surrounding issues like women’s rights, which exploded in the 1960s, according to the SJSU Washington Square webpage.
Surleen Randhawa, former president of SJSU Women's Wellness and Planned Parenthood Generation Action at SJSU, has used her platform to support student activism with education and help students understand the full scope of sexuality education.
“I have been trying to foster a safe space for students where they feel seen, heard (and) validated,” Randhawa said. “This has been possible through a lot of things that we do in our events, like group discussions, wellness circles, fundraisers and community care events.”
SJSU has been an important site of protest and social change, including key moments in the Olympic Project for Human Rights.
The Olympic Project for Human Rights was a movement in the 1960s led by athletes and activists, including multiple integral Black women at SJSU such as Sandra Boze Edwards and Gayle Boze Knowles, who advocated for racial equality and social justice, according to the Washington Square webpage.
“Take Back the Night” was a key march organised as part of Womyn’s Week 1981, according to a March 16, 1981, Spartan Daily article.
Around 150 participants gathered at the Student Union Ballroom to chant slogans before marching around campus.
Protesters carried signs with messages, including some men participating holding a banner that read, “Men support Womyn - Take Back the Night,” highlighting the involvement of both genders in advocating for safety and gender equality on campus.
“We envision a campus culture where every student, especially women, LGBTQIA(+) students, women of color, or any kind of minority, feels empowered to prioritize their health and speak for their needs,” Randhawa said.
Individuals like Aimee Deveraux “Wiggsy” Sivertsen have advocated for the LGBTQIA+ community and women’s rights in the Silicon Valley since the 1960s, according to a June 28, 2023, San José Spotlight article.
She has been part of numerous efforts in San José, such as pushing the city’s early initiatives to establish gender-neutral bathrooms and fighting for more programs for domestic violence victims.
Campus groups such as the Society of Women Engineers, Women in Business, and Planned Parenthood Generation Action have also worked to create spaces for women to speak out, share their experiences, and provide support and advocacy, according to a Gender Equity Center webpage.
“Our main focus is education, dialogue and providing resources and tools for students who do want to make informed decisions about their bodies and their rights,” Randhawa said.
Following a leaked Supreme Court opinion challenging the historical Roe v. Wade decision, students on campus protested to protect reproductive rights, calling to ensure that everyone can access safe and legal abortion services, according to a May 10, 2022, article on SJSU News.
Scott Myers-Lipton, sociology professor at SJSU and director of the Teaching Social Action program, has witnessed students develop a series of campaigns that challenged institutional power structures harming women.
An investigation from the Spartan Daily revealed that SJSU administrators failed to properly follow up on sexual harassment allegations made against then-professor Lewis Aptekar in 2014, according to a Sept. 12, 2017, Spartan Daily article.
“They (SJSU, administrators) didn’t remove that professor; that person resigned under pressure from the students,” Myers-Lipton said.
The lack of proper follow-up on the 2014 became a significant point of concern, as it revealed that SJSU administrators had failed to investigate the complaints against Professor Aptekar before the 2015 investigation, according to the same article.
SJSU students and faculty have also responded to national women’s rights movements with local activism events, including when San José joined the nationwide Women’s Wave Rally, according to an Oct. 11, 2022, article by the Spartan Daily.
The Women’s Wave was a nationwide day of action on Oct. 8, 2022, organized to mobilize voters in support of reproductive rights and elect pro-choice candidates ahead of the midterm elections, as described on the Women’s March website.
“We don’t give our young people the opportunity to kind of exercise their democratic muscle, so why would we expect them to be engaged citizens, when they don’t have an opportunity to really exercise it?” Myers-Lipton said.
John Halushka, an associate justice studies professor at SJSU, said abortion rights are vital, but reproductive justice also encompasses the social and economic factors affecting people’s ability to make choices.
“By that I mean like economic issues, right…,” Halushka said. “Do you have a job – a well-paying job? Do you live in a safe community? Do you sort of have the community resources that are required to educate? It's incredibly expensive.”
In a study from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, 60% of adults without a degree say abortion laws influence their college enrollment decisions, according to an article from The Story Exchange on Oct. 2, 2023.
“I think it's important to sort of have an expansive view about movement that goes beyond,
– obviously – access to reproductive healthcare,” Halushka said.
