Dealing smoothly with student activism: reflections of activists and administrators in Sri Lankan state university system

Abstract

Activism is natural in any context. Similarly, in Sri Lanka student activism has been a prolonged issue in the state university system. As many sources mentioned, it has been deeply embedded in the system, thus eradicating activism is impossible. Therefore, we need to find some strategies to break the early development of activism and to weaken the impact. However, the local authorities have simply labeled student activism as a political matter and ignored them for years in Sri Lanka. Past studies have extensively discussed the negative consequences of activism, yet the prevention strategies are rarely spoken. Therefore, this study aims to seek strategies to deal with activism smoothly. Since the art of handling conflicts is subjective, this study employed the phenomenological approach under the qualitative strategy. A sample of administrators and student activists was selected using purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data and they were analyzed thematically. Mediation strategies were revealed from both activists' and administrators’ perspectives. Accordingly, this study revealed that activists expect a fair, respectful, friendly, humanistic, and genuine approach from the administrators' end. Administrators seek more autonomy and democratic governance when dealing with activism and they revealed some unique issues of their side. Two-Way communication, flexibility in mechanisms, humanistic approaches, more participation are the concerns where both parties are well thought out. All the identified strategies will be useful in handling activism smoothly in the future.