As the 2024–2025 academic year gets underway, news reports are predicting another wave of protests on American college campuses that may escalate into illegal activity. We may observe even greater volatility, unrest, and lawlessness than that which engulfed many universities last spring.
In anticipation of further campus disruption, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) today released a new trustee guide urging higher education leadership to prepare proactively for such events. The guide provides a series of practical action items that, if adopted, would help ensure student and faculty protests are peaceful and transpire in a way that preserves freedom of speech and assembly for the whole campus community.
An Equal Space for All: A Trustee Guide to Preventing Encampments and Occupations on Campus calls on college governing boards to enact clear, content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions so that students and faculty understand in advance which activities are acceptable and which are not. ACTA recommends ensuring that the penalties for violating these restrictions are clear and enforcing them consistently, up to and including expulsion for egregious violations. In addition, ACTA’s guide advises trustees to adopt a policy of institutional neutrality, thus freeing administrators from having to make official statements on every controversy of the day and in the process prejudicially committing the entire university to a political position.
With the release of An Equal Space for All, ACTA builds upon its 29-year legacy of trustee education and training. The guide will be distributed to 23,000 trustees at 1,600 public and private institutions across America.
“The free exchange of ideas, which is the very lifeblood of education and progress, vanishes when anomie and disorder seize the campus,” said ACTA President Michael Poliakoff. “Rule of law protects the freedom to teach and learn, which constitute the essential mission of higher education and must never be compromised. Trustees, as fiduciaries of their institutions, must be energetic guardians of order and civility in this crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole world is watching.”
ACTA Chief of Staff & Senior Vice President of Strategy Armand Alacbay stated, “Governing boards have more than enough on their minds as the fall semester starts up. This guide is a timely resource for trustees to help their chief executives handle exigent circumstances effectively—respecting everyone’s right to voice their opinions respectfully, while ensuring that the campus square remains a place where all members of the community feel welcome, no matter their perspective or background.”
Adhering to institutional neutrality and maintaining clear time, place, and manner restrictions are critical to protecting everyone’s freedom to speak and freedom to learn. By implementing the policies in this guide, university leaders will be well-equipped to protect learning, liberty, and free inquiry on campus.
MEDIA CONTACT: Gabrielle Anglin
EMAIL: ganglin@goacta.org
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