Navigating the New Wave of Student Activism Study
Strategies to engage and respond to student activists
While student activism has long been part of higher education’s narrative, colleges and universities across the United States and Canada were caught by surprise by the swift upsurge of student activism on campus in late 2015. The current wave of student activism is expected to intensify in coming years, as student populations and expectations change.
Mismanaging response can cause consequences to the institution and individual administrators. Institutions face possible reputational consequences, declining donations and support from alumni and friends, and decreased interest from prospective students and their families.
Student affairs administrators can facilitate dialogues on tough issues with the greater student body by rethinking current engagement efforts. This study has 22 practices to support your institution through the lifecycle of activism on campus—from educating potential student activists to constructing an agile response blueprint. Read the major takeaways from the full study below, or download the briefing for institutional leaders to read the highlights.
The challenge of modern campus activism
Starting in late 2015, campuses experienced a swift upsurge of student activism in both the U.S. and Canada. This “new wave” of student activism has been widely publicized by those beyond higher education. With the latest resurgence of student activism, most colleges and universities were caught by surprise. Most found that their existing policies and protocols were insufficient to address today’s activism. Administrators had to ask themselves and their colleagues about their role in responding to current student activists.
Student activism is not a one-size-fits-all issue from campus to campus. Institutions must find a delicate balance in the face of increasing questions from the public about ensuring free speech and increasing pressure from students to curb hateful or hurtful speech in an effort to create a welcoming campus climate. Alongside the reality that today’s activism is more complex than ever before, colleges and universities face high stakes to get the response right. Across the year, student affairs research gradually evolved from a crisis management approach to a positive, student-centered approach to addressing today’s activism.
"Students today are much more vocal about issues they care about. Before, you might have had a minority of individuals pushing for something, but there’s been a real mainstreaming of activism. Now, we have so many more minority and international students on campus that it feels like everyone is asking us for something.
"Vice Provost for Student Services
Canadian Public University
Section 1: Educating potential student activists
One of the largest challenges to providing early education and engagement is proactively identifying future activists. One way to identify and monitor potential activists is through social media. Student activists are using online channels to share opinions, respond to institutional action, organize, and draw support to their causes.
Three groups of student activists
Traditional student leaders
- Students already involved in student organizations and campus life activities
- Students have established relationships with administrators
- Examples include student government officers and multicultural center student board members
New activists
- Groups of students passionate about campus,community, and national causes
- Students become known to administrators through activist-centric activities
- Examples include members of college political organizations and cause-based student groups
Unknown activists
- Students who are relatively quiet until they become fired-up about a specific issue
- Administrators don’t know these students until they are active on campus or online
- Examples include students involved with the Black Lives Matter Movement or other cause-based movements and activities
Section 2: Facilitating community dialogue on tough issues
Embracing difficult dialogues is work that higher education and student affairs divisions have been doing for a long time. When talking about campus activism, it is easy to talk about how it affects those at its center—the student activists themselves—but activism impacts more than just those students on the frontlines. The impact of student activism extends beyond the local campus community. One external constituency that has been greatly interested in today’s campus activism is alumni, proving that engagement and passion do not stop at graduation.
Alumni’s reactions to campus activism have been a hot topic as of late in the news, in part because there can be significant consequences to negative reactions from alumni.
Tool: Helping frontline staff handle difficult questions
Answering questions about campus activism from external stakeholders can be difficult for university personnel who are not immersed in related causes on campus. To help frontline staff answer these difficult questions from external stakeholders, develop a cheat sheet with key information and talking points.
The cheat sheet approach is beneficial because it equips staff with easily accessible information, provides ready-to-use scripting, and helps direct stakeholders to institutional next steps. The format of such a cheat sheet is also easily tailored and updated for key campus groups, such as admissions recruiters or frontline administrative staff.
Section 3: Leveraging activism for long-term change
When receiving demands from students, some institutions say “we can’t” or “we won’t” address the demands. Institutions refuse to negotiate or end the conversation with an ultimatum, which causes protestors to “dig in” and ultimately results in students feeling ignored, isolated, or frustrated. It is important to consider the underlying concerns of students’ demands and try to determine next steps that the institution can take to address these concerns.
Section 4: Constructing an agile response blueprint
Many administrators we spoke with cited the difficulty of working with outdated policies and protocols. Student affairs is well suited to lead the institution’s first response to student activists because the success of the response is dependent on understanding people, but it needs to be formalized to ensure a rapid, thoughtful, and consistent approach to activism on campus.
Ongoing questions about the institutional response
- What are our policies and procedures?
- What is our immediate and ongoing communications strategy?
- When and how should law enforcement be involved?
- Who are our institution’s first responders?
- How will our institution de-escalate tense situations?
- How are we documenting what happens during demonstrations?
Where can student affairs lead right now?
- Update policies and protocols
- Establish dedicated first responders
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