STEM campuses like Stevens have historically cultivated cultures focused on technical excellence, research, and career advancement, often at the expense of broader social engagement. While this emphasizes and teaches the “how,” it often neglects the “why” and the “for whom.” When STEM students are disengaged from activism, they can become disconnected from the ethical implications of their work. Activism on STEM campuses bridges this gap, ensuring that future engineers, scientists, and technologists understand their responsibility to consider justice, equity, and public welfare alongside technical feasibility.
Beyond just STEM students, a common mindset reflected amongst college students is the idea that larger societal issues don’t affect them personally. This is an incredibly privileged perspective. A just and sustainable future cannot be built by people who are blind to injustice; it must be built by those who actively work to dismantle it. Women, people of color, disabled students, and other marginalized groups continue to face significant barriers in STEM education, their careers, and beyond. Activism creates spaces for these students to advocate for institutional change, demand equitable policies, and build support networks.
Studies that lean into the inevitable relationship between innovation and the communities it claims to serve belong to the emerging academic field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS). Academics within STS represent interdisciplinary experts who maintain one foot in scientific experimentation and technologies, while the other remains firmly rooted in intersectional social consequences. Stevens’ STS major curriculum offered within the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) is structured to familiarize students with technical coursework informed by a social, historical, and political lens. Despite making a more recent emergence in academics and course studies, the STS field is an invaluable professional bridge that highlights the persistent yet underacknowledged interplay between STEM and activism.
The current infrastructure, the accommodations that exist, the diversity initiatives across departments, and the mental health resources available didn’t appear because administrators decided to be generous. Students organized, protested, and demanded those changes, often facing disciplinary action and personal costs to make campus better for people they’d never met. Getting involved in activism doesn’t require becoming a full-time organizer or having prior experience. Start by attending a meeting of a student group working on issues that matter to you. Show up, listen, and see what campaigns are underway to see where you can contribute. All you need is the willingness to contribute time and effort to causes you believe in. Being involved teaches that trying to create a better world is not a charitable act for others but rather an essential process of creating resilient, equitable, and safe systems for everyone.
