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With the current state of affairs globally and domestically, there has been unrest in America and on college campuses across the country, often with extreme views leaving no room for calm discussion or dialogue. Below are some guides for crafting clear statements and helping to create a productive dialogue.
Guides to Dealing with Discourse and Unrest
Ohio State made a step by step guide to deal with a divided campus, the Campus Bridge Booklet. It’s recommended steps emphasize the safety of the students first and foremost, while also encouraging the sharing of ideas and respect for others. The multistep plan asks colleges and universities to take action quickly while being engaged and transparent with the students about steps being taken. It encourages them to listen to the students and their ideas (especially during the negotiations) and to make plans beforehand when there are large events and share those plans with the students for safety. Section 2 of the booklet describes how to write a statement and properly communicate as a college. This guide can be found here.
Ohio State also created Navigating Conflicts: A Guide for Campus Leaders and Public Safety Personnel, which provides valuable information from campus awareness, communication and providing students’ support.
Creating Dialogue
- A number of college campuses across the country have embraced the program Dealing with Discourse, which facilitates intellectual engagement and respectful communication and discourse from opposing viewpoints. The goal of the program is for students to engage in intellectual discussions safely and they often lead these events themselves. The program is an example how to lead calm and stimulating discussions. Participants often record their debates and discussions. You can click on the links to UCLA and Columbia University to learn more about how they use the program.
- Conducting and creating a space for a healthy dialogue and discussion is important for dealing with sensitive topics and strained tensions. Below are a few articles and guides on how to properly conduct a healthy and productive discussion. They include setting ground rules and how to overcome difficulties that one can faces when within difficult discussions. From the Unviersity of Michigan, A Guide on Discussion Difficult or High Stakes Topics and from the Journal of Transformative Education, Dialogue Across Social Differences.
- Below are additional and more extensive resources about creating a productive dialogue:
- Lohmann, Roger A., and Jon Van Til. Resolving Community Conflicts and Problems : Public Deliberation and Sustained Dialogue. Columbia University Press, 2011, https://doi.org/10.7312/lohm15168.
- Parks, Elizabeth S. The Ethics of Listening : Creating Space for Sustainable Dialogue. Lexington Books, 2019
Dealing with Unrest
Dealing with civil unrest respectfully and safely is a necessity for any college campus.
- United Educators (UE) provides a guideline for how to ethically and legally deal with divisive actions on campuses like protests. UE has links that lead to checklists for how to deal with controversial speakers on campus, event safety, a symposium on how to handle controversial events on campus, and universities protest policies and so much more. Here is the link to their website.
- The law firm of Fisher & Phillips offers a guide for how universities should deal with campus protests ethically and safely and within their grounds of legal jurisdiction. Here is a link to their website.
- Nicolaus Copernicus University provides insights into historical ways for successfully dealing with protests on campuses. For that link, click here.
Resources Specific to Dealing with the Israel and Palestine Conflict on Campus
With the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, there has bee a rise in tensions on college campuses and in the community. Below is an article talking about the rise in tensions that offers some ways about how to ease those tensions. Below it is a guide on talking about Israel and Palestine in schools.
- “Free Speech for Our Divided Campus” that appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
- “Guide on How and Why to Talk About Israel/Palestine” from Solutions Not Sides.
Writing a Statement
Putting out a statement is important during times of tensions. It is important to know when to put out a statement and what to include. Stanford Social Innovation Review offers a guide and checklist for when a nonprofit should put out a statement. Here is a link to that guide.
Many organizations have their own checklists as for what should be included in a good statement. Though they are specific for the entity the guide was created for, they offer useful step-by-step adaptable information. Below are some examples:
- Guidelines for Making Public Statements from the American Academy of Actuaries.
- Procedures for Making Public Statements from the Society of Biblical Literature.
- Guidelines and Policies for Public Statements, from the University of Iowa.
- Section 2 of the Campus Bridge Booklet from Ohio State, also found above, has a great checklist for writing an effective statement.
Examples of Statements
Looking at statements from universities that issued effective statements can be helpful. Below are some of the more effective statements where it is clear they are trying to be as unbiased as possible and putting the safety of the students above all else.
- “Statement on Intolerance and Campus Bigotry” from the University of California.
- “Condemning Antisemitism and Islamophobia” from the California State University.
- Statements on the war in Gaza from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The reason why communicating effectively matters can be found in this CalMatters article, “UC President had a plan to deescalate protests. How did we get a night of violence at UCLA?“