Addressing Demonstrations on Campus
Activism-fueled demonstrations by campus community members at colleges and universities are a perennial risk. Use the following tips to help your institution respect demonstrators’ rights of expression while safeguarding your community and protecting facilities and property.
Prepare in Advance
Advance preparation for campus demonstrations is critical. Take the following actions:
- Widely publicize your campus policies. Regularly publicize to your campus all policies (and if applicable, relevant laws or regulations) governing demonstrations or protests. Although public institutions are bound by the constitutional right to free speech, that right has limits. Consult counsel to ensure demonstration restrictions and enforcement are consistent with applicable forum rules, viewpoint-neutral treatment, and lawful time, place, and manner restrictions. If your institution is private, disseminate your rules addressing free speech or expression. Also consult counsel about state laws that may apply.
If you have a separate policy governing demonstrations and protests or offer participant guidelines, highlight them. Specifically cover laws or institutional policies regarding encampments or building occupations. Define key terms and note requirements for advance approval or registration by organizers.
Public and private institutions should apply demonstration and conduct rules consistently and in compliance with applicable First Amendment, nondiscrimination (including Title VI), and procedural requirements, and make clear that policy violations may be subject to discipline under the applicable (student, faculty, or staff) conduct code. - Rehearse your response plan. Conduct periodic drills or tabletop exercises of your emergency or crisis response plan relating to a campus demonstration. Invite representatives from the administration, public safety, and local police (especially if you have a memorandum of understanding or mutual aid agreement), risk management, facilities, legal counsel, communications, student affairs, civil rights or equal opportunity personnel, and other relevant areas. Include student event organizers if appropriate. Always incorporate discussion of the scope of your institution’s ability to respond to demonstrators and activists.
- Learn from the past. If your campus recently experienced a demonstration that had significant problems — perhaps because the community blamed actions of your campus safety or police force — study the experience carefully and look for ways to improve.
Manage the Demonstration
On the day a demonstration occurs, focus on effective communication (with participants and among responders) and taking actions to keep everyone on campus safe.
Step 1: Remind the community of your policies.
Just before a scheduled demonstration, remind your community members — by campus-wide text or email with appropriate links — about your applicable policies and potential disciplinary actions for violators. Give specific examples of prohibited actions. Also offer constructive safety tips for demonstrators.
Step 2: Ensure public safety is prepared.
Public safety, which typically has the most visible institutional role during a campus demonstration, should be fully staffed, properly equipped, and ready to handle crowds without being overly aggressive. Officers need a basic understanding of your obligations under the Constitution or institutional policy to protect freedom of speech and expression — and how those principles may translate when interacting with demonstrators.
Prepare your officers to issue legally and operationally appropriate warnings and to use dispersal, arrest, restraint, or force consistent with applicable law, institutional policy, de-escalation practices, and proportionality principles.
Consistent with recording, privacy, public records, and retention requirements, document public safety and participant action during the demonstration; this could include accounts from neutral observers, video recordings, or officers’ post-event written reports.
Depending on the expected size of the crowd, consider having additional trained staff help officers monitor developments, especially if your public safety department is small.
Step 3: Have a comprehensive communications plan.
Determine how public safety and others involved in managing a demonstration will communicate with each other. Consider whether your response and communications plans do, or should, integrate emergency notification and timely warning procedures under the Clery Act.
Prepare a backup plan (such as a calling tree) in case the primary method fails. Decide who will monitor social media before and during the event and how (and with whom) they will share pertinent information. Designate one or more spokespeople to answer questions and address campus constituents and parents, the surrounding community, and the media on your institution’s behalf; ensure they coordinate and provide consistent messaging.
Step 4: Recommend safety steps.
Post or distribute (by campus-wide text or email) a list of actions campus community members not involved in the demonstration should take to protect themselves.
Step 5: Deal with unplanned demonstrations.
Spontaneous or “unplanned” (from your institution’s perspective) demonstrations may make for a more difficult response, but some advance preparation is still necessary — and can mitigate the element of surprise. For example, training your public safety department in crowd management practices (such as de-escalation) can be especially important for spontaneous events. In deciding how to respond to this type of event, officers should act consistently with applicable state law, neutral institutional rules, and safety principles. Whenever feasible, they should take enforcement action against individual participants as appropriate — rather than treating an entire event as unlawful.
More From UE
Campus Demonstrations and Conflicts Resource Collection
Crisis Response: A Library of Tabletop Exercises (Campus Demonstration: Higher Education)
Additional Resources
Policing Campus Demonstrations
Fordham University: Demonstration Policy
George Washington University: Demonstrations Policy
The University of Chicago: Protests and Demonstrations Policy
Johns Hopkins University: Guidelines for Students in Support of Free Expression
University of Pittsburgh: On-Campus Demonstration Guidelines
This material is presented for general informational and risk management purposes only. It should not be considered legal, coverage, or other professional advice. Readers should consult their legal counsel, broker, or other appropriate adviser regarding their specific circumstances.
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