Katy Intakeo
Dr. Kubal
Sociology 176
9 March 2014
Word Count: 1731
Participant Observation #2 – March Forth on March Fourth
The qualitative research method I used this week was participate observation. I participated in the March Forth on March Fourth event that was held on the Fresno State campus from 12-3PM. I searched the SDA Berkeley website and found the variable “protest” which asks, “Over the past 5 years have you done any of the following to express your opinion about an issue or your support for a cause? c. Join a protest rally or march.” For the participate observation, I used the comprehensive principle to document what I saw and heard.
The first space that was observed was the free speech area at Fresno State. Then we walked around campus, where around sixty people walked past the Rose Garden and down Shaw Avenue near the P1 parking lot. The march continued on San Ramon Avenue and passed the buildings of Science I, Science II, McLane Hall, and Social Science. The last stretch of the march was near the Campus Drive roundabout, the Family, Food, and Science building, the Peace Garden and then towards the free speech area where we began the march. So the march occurred around the Fresno State university boundary.
The objects I saw in the space were signs that were stapled to wood blocks, trees, many campus buildings, and the free speech stage. There were a couple tables set up in front of the various club, organizations, sorority, and fraternity booths in the free speech area. Near the free speech stage, there were drinks and refreshments provided. As we marched on, we passed many other campus buildings and parking lots while we marched on the sidewalks of the Fresno State campus.
The actors in the protest were students of Fresno State, and a couple professors/faculty. Many if not most of the students were from Dr. Kubal’s classes and Dr. Jendian was there as well. The college-aged students were casually dressed in jeans, a sundress, t-shirts, or hooded sweatshirts because it was pretty cold earlier in the day. The actors also had on backpacks or had bags they carried with them on the march. The weather began to warm up because the sun came out from behind the clouds, so as a result, a couple students took off their sweatshirts because it was too warm to have it on.
The activity that we participated in was a march around campus. The signs that we held up were a variety of social issues that some students making the signs decided to highlight on. The topics that were covered on the signs were, women’s issues, animal rights (i.e. “Save the Pandas” was on a sign), sexual violence, education (i.e. freeze fees), sweatshops, hunger (i.e. food insecurity in Fresno), environment (i.e. solar/wind, students against fossil fuels) and peace (i.e. inequality for all). We all took a sign that highlighted a social issue, and then we proceed to walk around campus. I originally picked up a sign that said “Save the Planet!” on it which discussed students being against fossil fuels, but a classmate really liked that particular sign so I gave it to the classmate. Instead, I used the sign that said, “Justice Now!” and on the other side it said, “March forth on March 4th.”
When I got to the event, a couple classmates and I went over to the tables and saw that there were many signs on stapled to blocks of wood. We observed the area and saw that students were grabbing a sign they felt comfortable using. This prompted more students to go grab a sign also. I think this demonstrates how many do not want to be the first one to do something unless we see others participating as well. A couple students asked for pictures with their sign, so some students took pictures for them. After Dr. Kubal talked about beginning the march, all of the marchers stood in a line and then we proceeded with the march at around 2:00 PM. The march around campus was pretty mellow; there were not loud chanting or too much emotion. When a car beeped their horn, many marchers cheered, but other than that it was not too loud. The people around me talked amongst themselves. I noticed that the marchers stood near their friends or classmates they knew. I heard students talking about a variety of things such as other social issues, classes, graduation, and the event itself. From my observation, many of the students were doing the march for extra credit for Dr. Kubal’s classes. When I took a couple pictures to document the march, I heard a couple students behind me ask, “Are we suppose to take pictures?” amongst other students. This shows that people were observant of their surroundings. Since Dr. Jendian also participated in the march, many students asked him questions about various things. One conversation I overheard was about graduation. A student wanted clarification about this Spring’s graduation and he gave her the information she needed. I also heard a student say, “This is my exercise for the day!” The march did take up time and effort to walk around campus and hold up a sign. With the weather getting warmer, the walk did take up a lot of energy, especially for many who had classes all day and then did the march. I noticed one marcher began waving to people in cars or around campus. I thought that was an interesting thing to observe. However, I am not sure if anyone waved back. Towards the end of the march, I noticed that the marchers were a bit divided. At the beginning of the march, we were all bunched up together, but as time wore on, people got a bit tired and there were bigger gaps.
The march began at around 2:00 PM and lasted about 45-50 minutes. The sequence of events I observed was students grabbing a sign, lining up, marching around campus by following the directions of Dr. Kubal, putting the signs down near the free area stage, and then lining up for the sign-in sheet for the extra credit. This all occurred in the span of about an hour. We knew it was the beginning of the march when Dr. Kubal announced that it was going to begin and we knew it ended when we came full circle and came back to the free speech area.
The goal of those participating was to march around campus. It allowed students and faculty to not only demonstrate their rights to free speech, but also highlight issues that concerned us. All of the issues pertain to not only the world, but also locally. Some issues we face are that food insecurity is rampant around the Central Valley, student fees are always increasing, Fresno State is not a sweat free campus, and we have a lot of pollution in our air. The event also allowed students to receive extra credit in their classes; their goal was to do participate in any way possible to get the points. All the students made sure to stick around to sign the sheet Dr. Kubal provided. One thing that could impede the goal of the march was if someone of authority tried to stop it and say we could not march.
When I got to the event, I was a bit apprehensive because I did not know what to expect since I had never done a protest or a march before. I am the type of person who has to know all the details and do not like doing things that make me too uncomfortable. However, I found the experience enjoyable as I got to interact with fellow students and also raise awareness for causes that are important. I was towards the middle of the bunch and saw that people hold their signs proudly and when nonmarchers walked by, many happily told them what was on their sign or made sure the people saw it.
The discussions were very casual and quiet. I did not hear any conversations that were not close by. Many people talked about other things besides the march. I believe the march prompted talks of social change because I heard discussions about ASI and how people were going to storm into the meeting, demanding changes to ASI funding. People talked to people they knew so the conversations did not seem forced. So the environment was pretty relaxed despite there being a march going on.
For the General Social Survey question that asked, ““Over the past 5 years have you done any of the following to express your opinion about an issue or your support for a cause? c. Join a protest rally or march,” I used the variable “race” to see their opinions on this particular question. The results show that most of those surveyed had not participated in a rally or a march where 93.8% of whites said no and 95.6% of blacks said no (Other – 98.2%). However, the results show whites in the survey are more likely to have joined a rally/march at 6.2% as opposed to 4.4% for the blacks surveyed. I think that most people do not protest or go on marches is because they may not feel they can make a different or they feel they are too busy to go out and march. This may have been with the March 4th event. Many students may have felt too intimidated or did not have the time to do the march. I only saw about a quarter of our class at the event.
Something I could improve on is asking for questions about the event to those involved with putting it on and also talking to more people. I only talked to people I knew because I felt comfortable talking to them and not anyone else. However, I could have gotten more details if I did talk to other people who were in the march. I could have asked about the signs and how they came up with what to put on it. Overall, I found the event enjoyable and it does interest me in wanting to participate in other marches. I got to interact with fellow classmates, which was nice to see their personalities outside of class. It was nice to see groups of students and faculty coming together for a common goal and being able to participate in something I may not have thought about doing before.
Figure 1: GSS Table
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Images from the March:
Free Speech Area:
Beginning of the March
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