Recommendations for effective and equitable engagement, from my students.

This article shares practical, research-based recommendations for college campus engagement, particularly during the recent encampments. It also demonstrates how university faculty can engage with socio-politically polarizing content while maintaining disciplined and rigorous thought and dialogue.

A little context: I'm a K-12 person, so this academic year was a first for me…teaching college students - the majority of them future educators and others who will work with children, youth, and families. I have absolutely loved every moment of it. These young people have provided me with bountiful inspiration and hope for our collective future, with their demonstrated and emerging commitments to equity and excellence for the even younger people.

I taught Family & Community Engagement this spring, an overview course on strategies, research, philosophy and best practices for centering minoritized and marginalized students, families, and communities in the practice of education. Shout out to Dr. Davena Jackson, PhD for thoughtful, powerful design of the course, building on Dr. Karen Mapp 's work on parent engagement and anchored in Ann Ishimaru 's text “Just Schools”.

The semester focused on key questions in K-12: How can districts, schools, classrooms better engage marginalized and minoritized families? Why does this matter? How does bias mediate engagement? What are my identities? How does identity mediate engagement? How do our “scripts” about our roles as educators, and who and what minoritized families and communities are prescribe our interactions with them? What about when we are them, or of them...how does being in this position of authority and power shift trust? How can we interrupt these scripts? We sat in a circle each week and investigated it all with earnest vulnerability, rigor, and gusto. Shout out to our guests Chief Myriam Ortiz and Dr. Charles Cole for sharing their wisdom in practice with the class.

For the final exam, I constructed a set of questions which would require students to retrieve, sift through, and analyze information from across the semester, to demonstrate their ability to utilize their new knowledge. Whether referencing Bloom’s, Marzano’s, or Fink’s taxonomy of cognitive processes, if students can apply their knowledge to a novel situation, they have incorporated the learning in ways that will be practically useful in the future.

The final question:

-???????Based on the readings and research investigated this semester, what recommendations do you have for university presidents who lead campuses where pro-Palestinian encampments and protests/counter protests are taking place?

-???????Write a short memo to the administration of any of the universities detailing your recommendations for engaging students in their demands and arriving at a resolution.

-???????Synthesize your semester long understanding of equitable collaboration and engagement of students and community in your response.?

-???????No more than 1 page.?

Here are some highlights from their memos to university presidents:

- Transform power by electing students to lead the response & action committees.

- Establish shared goals and plans from all stakeholders within the response & action committee

- Respect the right to protest by designating safe protest spaces on campus

- Humanize the neutral statements from the university on the Pro-Palestine protests and the Palestine/Israel conflict through video messaging or in-person town halls.

- Initiate a dialogue with protesting students to understand their demands and concerns, with the aim of reaching a mutually beneficial resolution.

- Prioritize student safety by providing adequate support and resources to ensure peaceful protests and address any security threats.

- Promote education and awareness surrounding the pro-Palestinian demonstrations to foster a more informed and empathetic campus community.

- Approach the current situation with compassion, empathy, and a commitment to upholding the rights and well-being of all students.

- Collective learning: The administration can engage with student groups and other community members to collectively learn more about the current conflict and work towards peaceful dialogue and solutions.

- Partnering with community members: connect with outside community members who can act as experts and mediators towards discussions and learning experiences for administration and students to engage with.

- Restorative practices: many students have been harmed by the actions - in some cases lack thereof - taken thus far by the administration. Restorative practices must happen to begin to repair the damage done to the university community.

- Provide remedies for those who have been affected by the police (arrests, fines, etc) and the institution (suspension/expulsion/loss of aid) for expressing their right to an opinion

- And, of course, allow students and faculty the ability to eat, drink, or sleep if they are partaking in the encampment (no matter the side)

Their resulting recommendations are replete with insightful and practical recommendations that would lead universities to deeply engage with and listen to students. Implementing these, not only during times of crisis, but perhaps more importantly as an ongoing set of rules of engagement, would likely result in increased safety (psychological and material), student retention, and equitable outcomes. ?While not the goal of the protesters, as convergence theory would have it, equitable and authentic engagement is, ultimately, in the university’s best interest.