Document: Vision Statement

The Antechamber Collective is formed on the premise that a University is a place to produce not only visions, but concerted action, to change the world for the better. Historically, Universities have helped to incubate powerful social movements, but in the political climate of higher education today, with its pretensions to objectivity and culture of specialization, student activism finds itself in a marginalized and internally fragmented state. We, the members of the Antechamber Collective, perceive and make it our mission to address three types of division that have stifled student activism on our campus.

ONE. Compartmentalization of knowledge into subjects and disciplines. Atomized discipline- and issue-based groups dominate student organization on campus. As each group runs its isolated campaign from its singular perspective, connections between issues and potentials for collaboration are lost.

TWO. Artificial distinctions between academics and activism. These are seen as polarized entities, incompatible and separate from each other. Yet each one is very much reliant upon the other, leaning on it for strength, insight and growth. We must learn in order to act and act in order to learn; activism is not antithetical to, and in fact should follow from, scholarly pursuit.

THREE. False demarcation of the University as a space of privileged knowledge. The university is no more objective or apolitical than any other environment of learning. Rather than accept “legitimate authority” in education, youth, students, and workers can all teach and learn from each other; the University can learn with and from the civil society of which it is a part.

The Antechamber Collective works to unite existing pockets of critical scholarship and activism by breaking down these three divisions. We believe that doing so may awaken immense potentials of student energy for a movement towards social justice.