It is time to consider the impact on students of the various academic crises affecting higher education worldwide. The student political activism of the 1960s is but a dim memory now, but the fact is that students can and do still react, sometimes violently, to campus change and deteriorating conditions. There are indications that students may again take to activism, adding an important dimension to the academic equation. It is surprising that students have been so quiet worldwide as campus conditions deteriorate. There are signs that students are again becoming a force to be reckoned with.

The most dramatic example of student reaction now is in Germany, where the largest student demonstrations since the 1960s have taken place in the past few months to protest the rapidly deteriorating conditions in German universities. Massive demonstrations in Berlin, Frankfurt, and other cities have involved thousands of students in protests against budget cuts, overcrowding in the universities, and the general neglect of the universities by German authorities, who have been focused on economic problems and the challenges of reunification. It is widely recognized that the universities have suffered dramatically in recent years. They have been forced to absorb major increases in student numbers without added resources. This has led to overcrowding. Students now take seven or more years to finish their first degrees. Some are even choosing to study in other countries, such as the Netherlands, where academic conditions are better.

After suffering silently for almost a decade, the current wave of demonstrations has forced governmental authorities to take notice. So far, the only reaction has been finger-pointing by federal and state authorities.

In France, students over the past decade have taken to the streets to protest against educational reforms aimed at rationalizing the French university system and making student funding income related. Students succeeded in halting the reform, and French politicians, regardless of party, are reluctant to propose any new changes in current policy for fear of arousing student opposition.

It is somewhat surprising that students in other European countries have not taken to the streets. Throughout Europe, universities have experienced a combination of increased enrollments and stagnant or decreased funding. Italy has been especially hard-pressed, and the conditions of teaching and learning in Italian universities are among the worst in Western Europe. British higher education has been profoundly restructured in recent years. Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives totally reorganized the system, creating new universities by upgrading the polytechnics to university sta tus. Patterns of funding were changed as well. Students in both sectors were affected. The new Labour government of Tony Blair announced the imposition of tuition fees beginning this year. For the first time, British students will have to pay significant fees for their studies, although the amounts will be well below what American students in public universities pay. Student organizations in Britain have strongly opposed the imposition of fees, and there have been a few demonstrations, but no serious unrest as yet.

The student activism of the 1960s was stimulated at first by campus issues in the United States and in Europe. Students reacted to what Europeans call the "massification" of higher education. In the United States, one slogan was "do not fold, spindle, or mutilate"--a reference to the computer punch cards of the time. This was a plea not to be treated as mere statistics in an academic system that was growing rapidly. European students also reacted to dramatic expansion and deteriorating conditions on campus. It is no coincidence that the French student revolt, which came close to toppling the government of Charles deGaulle, started on the campus at Nanterre, a particularly dreary and overcrowded new branch of the University of Paris.

Campus conditions are today deteriorating in Europe as a result of government policy rather than of severe economic crisis or mismanagement by university administrators. Just as in the 1960s, expansion is not being combined with increased funding. Morale throughout academe is low, and it is the students who are increasingly discontented. Student anger has boiled over in Germany, and it is at least possible that other countries will follow.

A long period of campus quiet has lulled policymakers into discounting students as a potential political and social force. Students are directly affected by government policy concerning higher education. They must pay the tuition fees now being imposed in Britain, study in overcrowded lecture halls, and tolerate inadequate libraries and laboratories in much of Europe. Students have so far accepted their fate. Now, their patience seems to be running out.

Policymakers and administrators ignore student views at their peril. Once mobilized, students can be a powerful force. The 1960s taught us that student political activism is difficult to predict and that it rises from unanticipated causes. Whether the recent German demonstrations are a precursor to wider unrest is not yet known.