Giving Compass' Take:

• Student activism is on the rise right now. At Howard University in Washington, D.C., student group HU Resist has occupied the administration building for seven days now and refuse to leave until all of their demands are met. 

• At this moment in time, we have seen a lot of powerful students raise their voice protesting for what they believe in. How is student activism helping our nation grow? How can philanthropy help empower young people and amplify students' voices?

• Learn about the importance of activism in college spaces specifically. 

Students at Howard University occupied the campus’s Johnson Administration Building in protest in 1968. They did so again in 1989. Those occupations lasted four and five days, respectively, and ended with varying degrees of success. Now, current Howard students are in day seven of an occupation of their own. It is the longest takeover of the building in the institution’s history.

In late March, a student organization “dedicated to the liberation of Howard University” called HU Resist released a list of nine demands, which ranged from reasonable to extreme. Some of the demands are broadly reflective of student grievances across the country: The protesters want the administration to do more to address campus sexual assault, provide more support for mental health care, and curb tuition hikes.

And most of all, they want the resignation of the university’s president, Wayne A.I. Frederick, whom they blame for many of the university’s issues and who, they argue, is too cozy with the Trump administration.

The students are getting results. Some of their demands have been met, Maya McCollum, a freshman journalism student who is a part of HU Resist’s leadership committee, told me. The university agreed to extend the deadline for submitting housing deposits until May, and if enough students requested campus housing, the institution would delay renovations to accommodate them, according to the student newspaper. But the group is not yet satisfied, and they’re prepared to stick around until they are.

McCollum says the students are discussing whether to discontinue the protest without all of the demands being met, as students did in 1968, including their chief demand of Frederick’s resignation—though, she noted, the general consensus among protesters right now is that they will not relent without a resignation.

Read more about student activism by Adam Harris at The Atlantic