The new wave of student activism at colleges and universities is here to stay. Indeed, it’s likely to intensify due to changing campus demographics and increasingly high expectations from students. Mismanaging the institutional response to activism can bring severe consequences, from enrollment shortfalls, to bad PR, to fundraising declines.
Even institutions that considered themselves quiet campuses have been recently surprised by outbursts of activism, which highlighted the costs of not being prepared to respond. It only takes one viral social media posting or incident to activate students and dramatically change the campus environment.
While student affairs divisions and campus safety offices typically take the lead in responding to campus protests, student activism has an outsized impact with ripples far beyond the individuals protesting on the quad or disrupting events. We tend to focus our time and attention on the protestors and therefore haven’t spent as much time thinking about how to support and engage the broader campus community including donors, alumni, and university friends.
This research looks at campus unrest from the perspective of what advancement leaders need to know and do especially in regard to our alumni and external stakeholders.
Resources for advancement leaders
Tool 1: Frontline staff FAQ template
Answering questions about campus activism from external stakeholders can be difficult for university personnel who are not immersed in responding to campus activists. To help frontline staff answer difficult questions, use this template to develop a FAQ (or cheat sheet) with key information and talking points.
Use the activity on the next page to identify specific internal and external audiences that might benefit from an FAQ.
Tool 2: Alumni comment tracker
A significant crisis or controversy on campus can draw an influx of attention from external constituencies, including alumni. While receiving such a high volume of interest and feedback can be overwhelming, having an organized approach to cataloging alumni comments can be useful.
Use this worksheet to identify the four essential components for building a tracker and using the data.
Tool 3: Tabletop exercises
Explore three prompts that can be used as quick tabletop exercises for senior institutional leaders. Discuss these prompts using the questions at the bottom of the page to assess your institution’s preparedness for a future outburst of activism on campus.
Related resource: Recommendations for further reading
Review our list of recommendations for related reading on this topic.
This resource requires EAB partnership access to view.
Access the tool
Learn how you can get access to this resource as well as hands-on support from our experts through Strategic Advisory Services.
Learn More