Challenge Convention, and Change our World. It is a slogan we often make fun of, poke holes in, or use to criticise those who stand in the way of what we view as progress. But despite the often jeering tone we use it in, I think it is a very real modus operandi for Clark students and faculty. This should be celebrated.

Clark students have been activist voices throughout the history of our university, reaching back to the Vietnam War and beyond. In 1968, we sent about 100 students to Washington, D.C. to protest the Vietnam War. In the 1980s, Clark students advocated for divestment from Apartheid South Africa. 

We have been challenging convention and attempting to change things when and however we can. This continues to today here at Clark. During my time here, students have worked for and against an undergraduate student worker union, for and against divestment, for and against disarming CUPD, and many other discussions of how and what we can change at our university. Regardless of where people consider themselves on these debates, the fact that these debates are happening proves that Clark, even after 150 years, is still Clark. By engaging in these discussions, on either side, we all continue a long tradition of Clark Students fighting for their beliefs. Clark students have continuously fought for what they believe in with a deeply commendable tenacity.

To fight for our beliefs like this is to be Clark. Going back to the choice made by Jonas Clark, and subsequent University leaders to keep our university small, Clark and Clarkies have chosen to be different. Founded at a similar time and under similar conditions to Stanford, Drexel, and others, Clark has always walked a different path. A path that keeps Clark small, and allows for deep relationships between faculty, staff, and students. A path that gives students an outsized voice on our campus. This choice allows and encourages the kind of activism that we see on our campus. This path is risky, as is evidenced by the ongoing financial concerns we see. But it is a path worth taking. 

Clark is not our administration, the board of trustees, or the buildings scattered around Main South. Clark is us. Clark is the activists arguing for their beliefs here on campus and throughout the world. I am honored and proud to be a small part of a long tradition of Clark students challenging convention and changing their world.