Ensuring a Passive Student Body
Here’s the thing: WashU loves having an ‘active student body,’ but they don’t love it when that activity turns to activism that critiques WashU policies, positions, or actions; it hurts their image, threatening their power and bottom-line. When students stage protests - marches, rallies, sit-ins, direct actions, the administration is forced to respond. This list of tactics and counter-tactics follows the confidential list of tactics made by WUSTL administration after Spring 2005 student protest below, using student experience to provide some countering strategies when dealing with the administration.
Communication Monitoring
Tactic: WUSTL has the ability to search through all of your WUSTL emails. It is someone’s job to follow “politically active” student’s social media accounts to monitor for actions and to notify administration.
Counter: Find alternative ways to communicate! Use non-WUSTL email providers (riseup, gmail). Be strategic about what you post on social media. You may even consider sending out fake information over WUSTL channels to divert the university.
Policing Protesting
Tactic: Mobilize pre-determined response plan by police. Remove occupiers early [in the case of a student occupation, such as a sit-in] by using police before the community can react. Ensure campus police are present at all protests. Bring in riot gear and set-up barricades as scare tactics. If arrests are made, bring in city or county police to make the arrests. Students arrested will have court dates and possible fines, which may limit the future organizing capacity of them or their group.
Counter: Hold direct action trainings to to prepare both leaders and participants in an action! Act out scenarios during these trainings to role play possible interactions with police. Anticipate police presence (even just WUPD) and designate a police liaison to communicate with them.
Refusal to Negotiate
Tactic: Release a public statement sympathizing with campaign goals, while expressing concern for wider community and University’s interests that the protesters seem to not take into account. Assert that administration will not negotiate under pressure. Claim busy schedules, and set negotiation meetings months apart to limit contact during the semester while social power of the group wanes.
Counter: This is where you need help from good media. Direct actions with lots of media attention highlight urgency of the struggle and force administration to view you as a threat to the image of the school. Have well-researched and concrete demands for the school - but know which ones are more fluid and which are non-negotiable to your group.
Isolation of Occupiers
Tactic: Limit access by outsiders and occupiers to use of facilities (food delivery, phone, fax, wifi, heat/ac, visual access to outside); consider moving any University operations from occupation zone to minimize disruption; limit talking to occupiers to setting ground rules for their behavior and consequences for their behavior.
Counter: The administration will change their logistics so you will disrupt their systems less, but think about: who are your actions for? Doing extensive community and media outreach so that your protest is seen by a larger group of people widens the scope and power of your struggle and helps keep the pressure on. Keep tabs on what changes the administration makes and move action locations strategically in response to their movements.
Limit Funding
Tactic: Student groups must register and comply with student union to receive funding from the university; groups that critique the University are denied direct or indirect access to resources
Counter: Know your networks - build allies and leverage other student groups you may be a part of. Ally with community organizations through supporting non-WashU struggles and building those relationships. Leverage individual participants' access to wealth and resources (proud parents, anyone?). If the time allows, apply for grants or crowd-source funding.
Line up Decision Makers and Advisors
Tactic: Pre-appoint a small number of decision makers (first tier--Chancellor, Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration, Vice Chancellor for Students; second tier--Executive Vice Chancellor General Council, Vice Chancellor Communications, relevant Executive Vice Chancellor to advise), giving them authority to deal with crisis and make quick decision on any use of police. Seek outside advice from key board members (ex: Danforth) and professionals with union busting resumes (ex: Ned Lempkemeyer).
Counter: Form a circle of your own advisors! You’ll be surprised who comes out of the cracks to support you—professors, WUSTL employees (publicly and privately), parents, community organizers, national organizations, frontline campaigns, local campaigns, alumni….reach out for support!
Buttress Judicial Code
Tactic: With mass actions and political pressure in mind edit disciplinary procedures. Expedite process to ensure impact on crisis. Expand temporary suspension powers to permit University to protect integrity of its operations against purposeful disruption. Encourage firm application of Judicial Code with mounting sanctions as action escalates.
Counter: Resist together! When taking risks, take them collectively and have each other’s back!! There is power in numbers and a greater ability to campaign and disrupt any charges or disciplinary procedures when together rather than alone.
Threatening Faculty Participation
Tactic: Indirectly limit tenure or career advancement to staff and faculty who publicly support student dissent.
Counter: Build relationships with faculty. Share insight to University power structures and strategies. Since department heads sign away some of their tenure rights and protection to obey the higher-ups when they accept their positions, be wary of their allegiance. Call faculty in to stand on the side of justice, as it is their right and responsibility to demand academic freedom. While nontenured faculty might be intimidated, a student alliance is the best protection for faculty since students can use their position to remind administration to not retaliate.
Limit Contact with Chancellor
Tactic: Limit student validation by keeping the chancellor above the fray and use someone else as the negotiator. Send out assistant to the chancellor as a go between.
Counter: Do not trust the negotiator or tell them information that you do not want the university to have. Don’t believe anything until it’s in writing. Record conversations and meetings for your own archive and media purposes. Be public and vocal about the fact that the Chancellor is avoiding students and ask outside supporters and allies to also pressure for direct communication.
High Student Turnover
Tactic: The four years of undergrad studies works in the university’s favor; by the time students have gone through political awakening process, leadership and memory of movements graduate out.
Counter: Consciously work leadership into the development of your organization, especially through creating written documents, records and archives of student movements and lessons learned. Grow and work on longer-term spaces not facilitated by WashU for politically aligned students to come together!
Public Shaming & Respectability Politics
Tactic: When talking publicly about campaigns, note how respectable or non-respectable student campaigns were, socially stigmatizing campaigns that critique the status quo in ways that may threaten the school’s prestige. Leverage status as a ‘liberal’ university to police political dissent in the student community. Encourage students to “work within the system” through formal meetings or committees. Set expectations of formal dress for student negotiators.
Counter: Turn their rhetoric against them. Publicize these instances, strategically decide who to not alienate with the tone of the movement (i.e. call in students of color, queer students, working class students, hold conversations to increase support on the ground while not backing down when speaking to power). Demonstrate the way their response creates the wrong reputation for WashU. Show how better-ranked schools are doing the exact same thing Wash U says will hurt their rep (ex: Harvard having better socioeconomic diversity than Wash U, Stanford’s divestment from coal companies). Participate in within-the-system negotiations as much as your crew feels comfortable, but recognize the ways this can be an attempt to quash your demands and derail the process.
The Reformist Task Force
Tactic: Appoint a task force to discuss how change can be accomplished without disrupting the University. When faced with shortcomings of current programs or critiques, cite reform efforts in the works to pacify dissent.
Counter: This one’s a toughie. Understand that this is not necessarily a ‘win’ and does not destroy the need for direct action. If possible, maintain seats at the table for such a task force without conceding your positions! Use an inside and outside strategy to make use of the task force, while continuing to create pressure through direct action tactics.
Private Campus & Designated Free Speech Zones
Tactic: Designate areas where reasonable demonstrations and free speech are recognized by the university with some limitations but without registration. Police other areas heavily. Threaten alumni and outside support to student resistance of trespassing if caught on property. As a private institution, have students sign away their right to assemble on campus when they become a student. Then arrest and charge current students with trespassing on their campus when they protest the University.
Counter: Think about how the site of an action can strategically leverage power. Consider participant risk and numbers when planning actions and train accordingly. Be aware and deliberate of the rules you break and research history of enforcement. Publicize absurdity of limitations placed on students by the university to discourage enforcement.
University Media
Tactic: Use university press—research journals, online forums, websites and social media-- to publish nay-sayers critiques of student action and voice. When forced to make a public statement, release press statements that may draw negative attention to a scandal on the back end of a website to limit traction.
Counter: Keep a watchful eye for counter media; don’t let it take you down. When a response makes you question your actions, consult with support and advisors to unpack the argument. Find sympathetic media both inside (ex. studlife -- sometimes they exist!) and outside the school to write about your point of view--develop those relationships early. Publish your own op-eds to get your narrative out there.
Coopting for good Press
Tactic: Use the “politically active” student body or city protests as a positive attribute of the school to sell it to students. Simultaneously impede student action and demands.
Counter: Base your campaign in a narrative that counters the admin’s hypocrisy. Check out Center for Story Based Strategy for tools on fleshing out a narrative.
In-accessible Board of Trustees
Tactic: Limit transparency of board projects and impact to student body. Ensure that the student representatives to the board don’t overshare about board activities by having them sign a contract. Limit or deny student representative participation in many of committee meetings and deny them a voting role.
Counter: Build relationships with student representatives and work with them to present proposals to board members outside of board meetings. Continue to pressure the university for a more transparent, accessible board.
Deny Power and Claim Neutrality
Tactic: Repeat after me: “I just don’t have the power to do that. That’s so-and-so’s terrain.” And “We don’t get involved with city-wide politics.” Deny decision-making power and cite a need for neutrality to throw a wrench in student strategy and avoid taking a side (so funders don’t get mad).
Counter: Don’t be fooled by administration side-stepping the issues. Publicly point out the complicity of members of administration in perpetuating injustices. In many cases, researching and exposing the University’s conflict of interest in the policy or action your asking them to take will shine light on their inaction. Encourage and expose ways that they could leverage their positions of power. As Desmond Tutu aptly said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Tinfoil Hat Paranoid Distraction
Tactic: Charter a bear with questionable rabies status to come to campus that then receives national news attention and an entire coalition of otherwise apathetic students to save said Bear in order to divert attention away from current student action or movement.
Counter: wtf
Tactic: WUSTL has the ability to search through all of your WUSTL emails. It is someone’s job to follow “politically active” student’s social media accounts to monitor for actions and to notify administration.
Counter: Find alternative ways to communicate! Use non-WUSTL email providers (riseup, gmail). Be strategic about what you post on social media. You may even consider sending out fake information over WUSTL channels to divert the university.
Policing Protesting
Tactic: Mobilize pre-determined response plan by police. Remove occupiers early [in the case of a student occupation, such as a sit-in] by using police before the community can react. Ensure campus police are present at all protests. Bring in riot gear and set-up barricades as scare tactics. If arrests are made, bring in city or county police to make the arrests. Students arrested will have court dates and possible fines, which may limit the future organizing capacity of them or their group.
Counter: Hold direct action trainings to to prepare both leaders and participants in an action! Act out scenarios during these trainings to role play possible interactions with police. Anticipate police presence (even just WUPD) and designate a police liaison to communicate with them.
Refusal to Negotiate
Tactic: Release a public statement sympathizing with campaign goals, while expressing concern for wider community and University’s interests that the protesters seem to not take into account. Assert that administration will not negotiate under pressure. Claim busy schedules, and set negotiation meetings months apart to limit contact during the semester while social power of the group wanes.
Counter: This is where you need help from good media. Direct actions with lots of media attention highlight urgency of the struggle and force administration to view you as a threat to the image of the school. Have well-researched and concrete demands for the school - but know which ones are more fluid and which are non-negotiable to your group.
Isolation of Occupiers
Tactic: Limit access by outsiders and occupiers to use of facilities (food delivery, phone, fax, wifi, heat/ac, visual access to outside); consider moving any University operations from occupation zone to minimize disruption; limit talking to occupiers to setting ground rules for their behavior and consequences for their behavior.
Counter: The administration will change their logistics so you will disrupt their systems less, but think about: who are your actions for? Doing extensive community and media outreach so that your protest is seen by a larger group of people widens the scope and power of your struggle and helps keep the pressure on. Keep tabs on what changes the administration makes and move action locations strategically in response to their movements.
Limit Funding
Tactic: Student groups must register and comply with student union to receive funding from the university; groups that critique the University are denied direct or indirect access to resources
Counter: Know your networks - build allies and leverage other student groups you may be a part of. Ally with community organizations through supporting non-WashU struggles and building those relationships. Leverage individual participants' access to wealth and resources (proud parents, anyone?). If the time allows, apply for grants or crowd-source funding.
Line up Decision Makers and Advisors
Tactic: Pre-appoint a small number of decision makers (first tier--Chancellor, Executive Vice Chancellor for Administration, Vice Chancellor for Students; second tier--Executive Vice Chancellor General Council, Vice Chancellor Communications, relevant Executive Vice Chancellor to advise), giving them authority to deal with crisis and make quick decision on any use of police. Seek outside advice from key board members (ex: Danforth) and professionals with union busting resumes (ex: Ned Lempkemeyer).
Counter: Form a circle of your own advisors! You’ll be surprised who comes out of the cracks to support you—professors, WUSTL employees (publicly and privately), parents, community organizers, national organizations, frontline campaigns, local campaigns, alumni….reach out for support!
Buttress Judicial Code
Tactic: With mass actions and political pressure in mind edit disciplinary procedures. Expedite process to ensure impact on crisis. Expand temporary suspension powers to permit University to protect integrity of its operations against purposeful disruption. Encourage firm application of Judicial Code with mounting sanctions as action escalates.
Counter: Resist together! When taking risks, take them collectively and have each other’s back!! There is power in numbers and a greater ability to campaign and disrupt any charges or disciplinary procedures when together rather than alone.
Threatening Faculty Participation
Tactic: Indirectly limit tenure or career advancement to staff and faculty who publicly support student dissent.
Counter: Build relationships with faculty. Share insight to University power structures and strategies. Since department heads sign away some of their tenure rights and protection to obey the higher-ups when they accept their positions, be wary of their allegiance. Call faculty in to stand on the side of justice, as it is their right and responsibility to demand academic freedom. While nontenured faculty might be intimidated, a student alliance is the best protection for faculty since students can use their position to remind administration to not retaliate.
Limit Contact with Chancellor
Tactic: Limit student validation by keeping the chancellor above the fray and use someone else as the negotiator. Send out assistant to the chancellor as a go between.
Counter: Do not trust the negotiator or tell them information that you do not want the university to have. Don’t believe anything until it’s in writing. Record conversations and meetings for your own archive and media purposes. Be public and vocal about the fact that the Chancellor is avoiding students and ask outside supporters and allies to also pressure for direct communication.
High Student Turnover
Tactic: The four years of undergrad studies works in the university’s favor; by the time students have gone through political awakening process, leadership and memory of movements graduate out.
Counter: Consciously work leadership into the development of your organization, especially through creating written documents, records and archives of student movements and lessons learned. Grow and work on longer-term spaces not facilitated by WashU for politically aligned students to come together!
Public Shaming & Respectability Politics
Tactic: When talking publicly about campaigns, note how respectable or non-respectable student campaigns were, socially stigmatizing campaigns that critique the status quo in ways that may threaten the school’s prestige. Leverage status as a ‘liberal’ university to police political dissent in the student community. Encourage students to “work within the system” through formal meetings or committees. Set expectations of formal dress for student negotiators.
Counter: Turn their rhetoric against them. Publicize these instances, strategically decide who to not alienate with the tone of the movement (i.e. call in students of color, queer students, working class students, hold conversations to increase support on the ground while not backing down when speaking to power). Demonstrate the way their response creates the wrong reputation for WashU. Show how better-ranked schools are doing the exact same thing Wash U says will hurt their rep (ex: Harvard having better socioeconomic diversity than Wash U, Stanford’s divestment from coal companies). Participate in within-the-system negotiations as much as your crew feels comfortable, but recognize the ways this can be an attempt to quash your demands and derail the process.
The Reformist Task Force
Tactic: Appoint a task force to discuss how change can be accomplished without disrupting the University. When faced with shortcomings of current programs or critiques, cite reform efforts in the works to pacify dissent.
Counter: This one’s a toughie. Understand that this is not necessarily a ‘win’ and does not destroy the need for direct action. If possible, maintain seats at the table for such a task force without conceding your positions! Use an inside and outside strategy to make use of the task force, while continuing to create pressure through direct action tactics.
Private Campus & Designated Free Speech Zones
Tactic: Designate areas where reasonable demonstrations and free speech are recognized by the university with some limitations but without registration. Police other areas heavily. Threaten alumni and outside support to student resistance of trespassing if caught on property. As a private institution, have students sign away their right to assemble on campus when they become a student. Then arrest and charge current students with trespassing on their campus when they protest the University.
Counter: Think about how the site of an action can strategically leverage power. Consider participant risk and numbers when planning actions and train accordingly. Be aware and deliberate of the rules you break and research history of enforcement. Publicize absurdity of limitations placed on students by the university to discourage enforcement.
University Media
Tactic: Use university press—research journals, online forums, websites and social media-- to publish nay-sayers critiques of student action and voice. When forced to make a public statement, release press statements that may draw negative attention to a scandal on the back end of a website to limit traction.
Counter: Keep a watchful eye for counter media; don’t let it take you down. When a response makes you question your actions, consult with support and advisors to unpack the argument. Find sympathetic media both inside (ex. studlife -- sometimes they exist!) and outside the school to write about your point of view--develop those relationships early. Publish your own op-eds to get your narrative out there.
Coopting for good Press
Tactic: Use the “politically active” student body or city protests as a positive attribute of the school to sell it to students. Simultaneously impede student action and demands.
Counter: Base your campaign in a narrative that counters the admin’s hypocrisy. Check out Center for Story Based Strategy for tools on fleshing out a narrative.
In-accessible Board of Trustees
Tactic: Limit transparency of board projects and impact to student body. Ensure that the student representatives to the board don’t overshare about board activities by having them sign a contract. Limit or deny student representative participation in many of committee meetings and deny them a voting role.
Counter: Build relationships with student representatives and work with them to present proposals to board members outside of board meetings. Continue to pressure the university for a more transparent, accessible board.
Deny Power and Claim Neutrality
Tactic: Repeat after me: “I just don’t have the power to do that. That’s so-and-so’s terrain.” And “We don’t get involved with city-wide politics.” Deny decision-making power and cite a need for neutrality to throw a wrench in student strategy and avoid taking a side (so funders don’t get mad).
Counter: Don’t be fooled by administration side-stepping the issues. Publicly point out the complicity of members of administration in perpetuating injustices. In many cases, researching and exposing the University’s conflict of interest in the policy or action your asking them to take will shine light on their inaction. Encourage and expose ways that they could leverage their positions of power. As Desmond Tutu aptly said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Tinfoil Hat Paranoid Distraction
Tactic: Charter a bear with questionable rabies status to come to campus that then receives national news attention and an entire coalition of otherwise apathetic students to save said Bear in order to divert attention away from current student action or movement.
Counter: wtf
This compilation is meant to be an organizing tool open to alternations. To discuss edits or additions please email [email protected].