Promote a Culture of Civility on Independent School Campuses
Independent schools are experiencing heightened levels of tension on campus. They must address these tensions to promote an inclusive, supportive climate, stay true to their stated mission and values, and promote financial sustainability by mitigating the impact of campus flashpoints. In order to adequately engage in difficult conversations, independent schools must promote a culture of civil discourse on campus.
Prepare your response to flashpoints on campus
Flashpoints are the new normal—heads of school are being asked to respond to incivility in the classroom and events off campus. Flashpoints come from many different actors and span a wide range of issues.
Underpreparing for or mismanaging a response carries significant consequences for advancement and enrollment at independent schools. Left unchecked or poorly addressed, flashpoints negatively impact the student experience, overwhelm staff and resources, and ultimately harm a school’s reputation and ability to make progress on key initiatives.
Read our white paper on responding to campus flashpoints to learn how to build clear and effective processes to efficiently address these events.
A flashpoint is an incident or event that causes a disturbance in the school community or media, including heightened levels of activism, media and public scrutiny, and reputational damage.
Quick Tips
To address potential campus flashpoints, follow these recommendations from EAB:
- Include flashpoints in your school’s risk register and create plans to mitigate these potential risks
- Create structures to consistently prepare for and respond to incivility in the classroom
- Learn from each flashpoint to strengthen campus response
Test your crisis response by using case studies
Flashpoints—including incidents on campus, controversy around alumni, and viral social media posts—can catch schools off guard, making it difficult to craft a swift and appropriate response to incivility in the classroom.
Forward-thinking schools recognize they must have a proactive strategy in place to not only minimize consequences when an incident arises, but also effectively address immediate student, parent, and community concerns.
The Case Study Compendium of Campus Flashpoints can prepare leadership at independent schools for a variety of possible incidents. In meetings with the senior administrative or crisis response team, heads of school should use the case studies to brainstorm possible responses to the provided scenarios, assess their school’s readiness for potential flashpoints, and develop strategies to prepare their school’s response.
Research Highlight
Consider the general discussion questions below for all case scenarios:
- Has a similar flashpoint occurred at your school or a nearby school before? What did you do well? What could you have done better?
- What parts of your school culture could contribute to an incident like this? What preemptive measures can you take to address incivility in the classroom?
- What is your main concern in addressing this flashpoint? What key response components would address that concern?
Develop a faculty speech and expression policy
Whether responding to a campus flashpoint or simply commenting on the news, faculty viewpoints can have unintended negative consequences on their students. As a result, many faculty are unclear on how or when they can share thoughts. Administrative leaders are unsure how to respond to parent concerns. Students are left wondering why some opinions appear to be more acceptable or valued than others.
School leaders should write a clear and effective policy on faculty expression to share with your faculty and greater school community.
Next Steps
School leaders should:
- Identify their school’s current expression policy. Determine if said policy is reactive, unclear, or proactive, as well as the maturity of the policy.
- Determine the ideal state for faculty speech and expression at their school. Find out if faculty should be sharing their views unencumbered, with limitations, or not at all.
- Look to the recommendations to write a clear and effective policy on faculty expression to share with your faculty and greater school community.
Create a framework to address incidents of incivility
In today’s climate, news of incivility incidents spreads quickly across independent school campuses and beyond. An increase in headlines touting breakdowns in civil behavior has left many heads of school wondering: what do I do if my campus is next?
Heads of school must have a decision-making policy that delineates when to respond to incidents on and off campus. Use this infographic to help build a response framework that ties decision-making to school mission and campus impact.
Craft a comprehensive statement on campus discourse
Incorporating clear expectations for faculty, students, and staff into a statement on civil discourse can help prevent flashpoints. But despite preventative efforts, flashpoints are the new normal—we know that heads of school are being asked to respond to incivility in the classroom and events off campus.
To increase the effectiveness of flashpoint responses, schools should provide their communities with proactive guidance on speech and expression. This statement connects a school’s mission with the expectations for civil discourse on campus. Riverdale Country School is taking an intentional approach to educating and communicating with their parents, students, and faculty about the statement and embedding it within their community norms. Learn more about crafting such a statement in our webinar with Riverdale.
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