College and university campuses have been at the center of demonstrations and protests since Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel responded with a widespread bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip. Students, faculty, and other members of university communities supporting Palestinians in Gaza or the Israeli invasion have been at odds for months, with each group looking to express its right to assembly and expression.
These activities have not been without controversy, creating challenges for campus safety and security leaders and campus governance. While some colleges ended demonstrations by striking deals with the students or waiting them out, others called the police when protesters refused to leave. During a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments protesting the war in Gaza, some 3,100 individuals were arrested (although officials have indicated they do not intend to pursue low-level violations). Schools were on the edge of their seats as bipartisan lawmakers called for the president of Columbia University to resign over the protests, fights broke out at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the House called a hearing with the leaders of Northwestern, Rutgers and UCLA over the chaos.
There is a strong sense that campus public safety executives are in difficult positions, with conflicting and often confusing guidance from campus leadership. Such scenarios are not new. In one form or another, these activities have been germane to challenges faced by campus leaders going back to the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and continuing through the demonstrations and protests of the past decade.
Campus Public Safety Executives Must Learn from Past Protests and Demonstrations
As the calendar edges closer to October 7, 2024, campus public safety and university leaders should assess their institutions’ responses over the past 12 months and ask three critical questions:
- What went right?
- What went wrong?
- What can we learn from other institutions?
Answering the first two questions will involve gaining local consensus from their communities (including students, faculty, and staff) to adjust university policy and practice accordingly. Once synthesized correctly, these answers will inform a cohesive future strategy that includes unambiguous and straightforward roles and responsibilities for campus partners during future events and incidents. Such efforts should strengthen the university’s emergency management framework and approach, providing the best infrastructure for pan-institutional decision-making during critical incidents.
Related Article: Managing Controversial Speakers on College Campuses
Answering the third question is a bit more complicated; however, these efforts yield the most significant results. The late, great John Timoney is attributed as observing that “[t]hose who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it . . . and those who study policing know we don’t study history.”
This has never been as true as within the context of demonstrations and protests on college and university campuses. Through the spring semester, university and college students “learned” from one another and evolved their approach to coincide with what had “worked” elsewhere, abandoning those strategies that failed. The protests that have taken place over the last few weeks on U.S. college campuses have raised comparisons to campus protests that have transpired over the proceeding decades, begging the question, are there lessons we should have learned?
Colleges Must Share Information When Preparing for the October 7 Anniversary
In preparing for the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel and the strong possibility of a return of demonstrations and protests, our campus leaders must learn from each other to provide a safe campus environment.
After physical conflict erupted between police and protesters during demonstrations at UC Berkeley and UC Davis in November 2011, Vice President and General Counsel Charles F. Robinson and then Berkeley Law School Dean Christopher F. Edley, Jr. reviewed existing policies and practices regarding the school’s response to demonstrations and civil disobedience. The resulting “Robinson-Edley Report,” published more than 12 years ago, provides salient points for consideration for leadership at all levels charged with providing for a safe environment that balances the expressive rights of the individual and the institution’s business needs.
Related Article: UC Berkeley Commission Issues Report on Controversial Events
Over the past 12 months, campus protests have occurred in 45 out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, with encampments, occupations, walkouts, or sit-ins occurring on almost 140 U.S. campuses as of May 6. Over this time, colleges and universities have gone to great lengths to study what has happened on their campuses. Many of these institutions have made their findings public, allowing for broad, industry-wide institutional learning. Campus public safety leaders need to read these reports, understand their implications, and apply the lessons learned at their institutions.
Collaborate with Key Stakeholders and Conduct Exercises
The key takeaways from these reports are always the same: early collaboration with key stakeholders and emergency preparedness are paramount to success. There is an adage in emergency management about not wanting to exchange business cards in a command post. While business cards are quickly becoming a relic of the past, the sentiment of that statement—that the time to meet your partners is not when you need them—is quite apropos in these scenarios.
In addition to having robust agreements, campuses should develop strong relationships with partners. These should include functional and full-scale exercises where participants respond to realistic simulated events based upon lessons learned from their own or similarly situated institutions and implement the plan and procedures. These exercises test collaboration among the agencies and participants, public information systems, communications systems, and equipment.
The organic outcome of such activities should be robust partnerships, building trust, reaching a mutual understanding of the unique service roles of each entity, and revising comprehensive emergency management plans. These well-coordinated efforts bolster community confidence and safety on and off campus through a more effective public safety response. We have learned valuable lessons from previous events relating to the specificity included within these agreements and the need for broad collaboration and buy-in from internal campus and external community stakeholders.
Continuously Review and Update Your Emergency Operations Plans
Too many campuses have built comprehensive emergency operations plans in a “set it and forget it” fashion. These plans must be reviewed continuously and validated to contain accurate and appropriate guidance. Living, actionable plans rely upon the concerted efforts of various offices and officials across the campus.
Related Article: Dealing with Protestors: Minimizing Conflict While Protecting School Interests
Furthermore, it is paramount that each affected group is familiar with their role and responsibilities within the plan and is comfortable acting accordingly before the need arises. Put another way, campus leaders need to lean into this philosophy, as it is during the planning process. During this process, institutions often identify gaps in their approach and appropriately adjust so that it is ready to go when the plan is required. Furthermore, such efforts allow appropriate stakeholders to become acclimated with all aspects of the campus response to demonstrations, including key campus safety issues such as the use of force and how decisions in complex, often evolving, situations.
The recent events underscore the challenges of colleges and universities in responding to expressive campus activities and demonstrations. These events highlight the potential for peaceful demonstrations to escalate and exemplify how universities must navigate the fine line between safeguarding free speech and maintaining a reasonably safe campus. Incorporating insights from such incidents into managing campus safety may offer valuable lessons. Success hinges on universities leveraging past experiences to refine their strategies for managing demonstrations in the interest of campus safety.
Prepare for the October 7 Anniversary Now
As campus security professionals and administrators reflect on how to best prepare for recent events and beyond, a commitment to institutional learning of prior events is essential to manage campus safety effectively.
Michael J. Rein, CPP is a nationally recognized expert on campus safety and the Director of Organizational Assessment with The Healy+ Group, a professional services firm specializing in organizational assessments for higher education police and campus safety organizations. Before joining Healy+, he served as a police officer at Rutgers University, retiring in 2022 as the Deputy Chief of University Police.
