As the intense emotions around politically charged and highly personal issues such as reproductive rights, DEI, geopolitical conflicts, and domestic politics—among others—flare, the risk these issues create for colleges and universities are further exacerbated by political gamesmanship, highly organized protests and community activism, and the resurgence of contentious, headline-grabbing speakers. From antagonism between student groups and faculty expressing personal political opinions to peaceful protests disrupted by professional “non-affiliates” looking to cause trouble on campus, we fully anticipate the tumult to continue on campuses.
Unfortunately, in many higher ed communities—broadly defined—there is insufficient understanding around or appreciation for the distinction between protecting free speech and tolerating civil disobedience. The challenge this creates is compounded by a lack of clarity in and/or an uneven enforcement of existing policies which can lead to further confusion as well as legal and reputational risk.
Our Protest Management Workshop is designed to clarify and strengthen an institution’s response to the potential risks that lie ahead. We do this by helping the institution’s leadership align around a core set of operating principles that can serve as a benchmark to guide decision-making in response to protest activities including encampments, event disruption, and building occupations, among other tactics.
Course Description:
Through an institution-specific survey and a series of “snapshot” scenarios, BMCG will facilitate a three-hour session with key leadership across the institution. Recognizing that any set of operating principles the institution enforces must be agnostic as to issue, scenarios will address a wide range of potential issues (unionization, reproductive right, current political and international climate, for example) with the goal of testing/validating leadership’s assumptions and decision-making and helping identify and coalesce around the key principles that will guide response going forward. In particular, we will explore:
- appropriateness of time, place and manner restrictions
- enforcement of student conduct
- the role of public safety and law enforcement
- Inclusiveness considerations, among others
This tailored workshop will be facilitated by BMCG in a low-stress and collaborative environment, with the goal to align and codify the institution’s point of view and coalesce around principles that will guide decision making in response to protest activities including encampments, event/speaker disruption, and building occupations.