When the latest wave of student activism shook colleges and universities across North America, many institutions were unprepared to manage the volume and complexity of students’ actions. Institutions without current or comprehensive policies find themselves grappling with complex, emergent situations on the fly, leaving themselves vulnerable to increased scrutiny from students, faculty and staff, alumni, third-party organizations, and the media. You can use policy audits to systematically review policy elements related to free speech and identify elements to prioritize at your institution.
Many policies relate to free speech or activism on campus, including time, place, and manner restrictions; reservation and advance notification procedures; and speaker and event protocols. Once you’ve completed a policy audit, review the free speech policy compendium and compare your policy with other institutions.
One of the distinguishing factors about recent activism is the widespread presence of external influences, or third-party actors. Third-party actors may collaborate with students and faculty to sponsor events, pop up on campus to distribute literature and speak with students, or pressure institutions to re-evaluate their actions related to promoting free speech on campus.
Creating and enforcing policies that regulate the actions of third-party actors is difficult—especially when their presence on campus can be completely unanticipated. Use this brief discussion guide with campus leaders and response teams to identify, discuss, and calibrate your institution’s response strategy for managing third-party actors and other external influences.
The impact of campus activism and unrest ripples outward to the broader campus community. You may already equip your staff with educational initiatives and trainings to respond to activism, but student affairs staff are not the only people affected by activism. It impacts other constituencies including senior leaders, alumni and development officers, and frontline administrative staff. These groups often face tricky questions about activism from external individuals.
Support staff across campus by providing them with FAQs and cheat sheets to help them navigate conversations and tough questions they may get from concerned parents, donors, community members, or the media. Include a short summary of current events on campus and context about what and why students are demonstrating. Articulate the university’s response strategy and your plan to address the issues moving forward with this tool.
Embracing difficult conversations is work that student affairs divisions have been doing for a long time, but facing tough issues head-on continues to be a challenging responsibility. Institutions must give students opportunities to feel heard, respected, engaged, and challenged.
Roundtable discussions and town hall meetings are common methods of facilitating dialogue between students and administrators, but these methods have shortcomings: they are often general, unfocused, unwieldy, and yield limited results. Breathe new life into these traditional methods by giving them purpose, structure, and follow-through. Use the guide to facilitate dialogue following on-campus activism.
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