University Policies for Student Protests and Implications for Student Voices in Social Justice Movements

The Vermont Connection Volume 46 Coalition and Insurgence: Responding to the Anti-DEI Climate in Higher Education. Article 10 April 2025 University Policies for Student Protests and Implications for Student Voices in Social Justice Movements Bailey S. Gengel University of Vermont Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc Part of the Education Policy Commons, Higher Education Commons, and the Social Justice Commons Recommended Citation Gengel, B. S. (2025). University Policies for Student Protests and Implications for Student Voices in Social Justice Movements. The Vermont Connection, 46(1). https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol46/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education and Social Services at UVM ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Vermont Connection by an authorized editor of UVM ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact . 54 • The Vermont Connection • 2025 • Volume 46 University Policies for Student Protests and Implications for Student Voices in Social Justice Movements Bailey Gengel Student activism has been an essential form of student engagement on college campuses since the United States colonial period. While the subject matter of these demonstrations has evolved over time, the tension between student demonstrators and university administrators persists. Institutional officials must decide how to best interact with student activists to support their demands while ensuring the continued academic operation of the university. These issues became exceedingly pertinent in the Fall 2024 semester as institutions implemented restrictions on student protests in response to the wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations surrounding the Israeli-Hamas War. This paper reviews perspectives for and against these new restrictions through the theoretical lens of the Institutional Response Framework, offering recommendations for administrators seeking to maximize the developmental benefits of student activism while ensuring the safe and effective operation of their campus community. Keywords: Student Activism, Student Leadership, Student Protest, Social Justice, University Policy Bailey Gengel (she/her) is an Assistant Residence Director and M.Ed. graduate student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration program at the University of Vermont. She holds a BS in Neuroscience from the University of Vermont, and is passionate about holistic student leadership development, the liberating power of education, and the value of institutional progress through reflection and assessment. 55 • The Vermont Connection • 2025 • Volume 46 University Policies for Student Protests and Implications for Student Voices in Social Justice Movements College campuses offer students a unique opportunity for development and growth through self-reflection, ideological investigation, and exposure to differing perspectives (Broadhurst, 2014). Furthermore, the college context cultivates an environment of student expression with frequent peer communication, extracurricular involvement, and an impermanent student presence on campus that necessitates rapid action for institutional change (Broadhurst, 2014). Many students engage in activism to explore and advocate for their worldviews, a trend that has existed on college campuses since the colonial period and serves as an ongoing outlet for nurturing student leaders (Broadhurst, 2014; Martin et al., 2019). However, in congruence with historical precedents, many student demonstrations are met with opposition on behalf of their institution rather than support for the development of student leaders (Martin et al., 2019). This trend continues in today’s politically charged campus climate, with several institutions implementing new or revised student protest policies in response to the Spring 2024 student demonstrations elicited by the Israel-Hamas war (Bradley & Shanley, 2024; Taft, 2024). As institutions prepare to engage with students in an ever-intensifying political climate, universities must implement policies protecting student safety and student expression on college campuses. This paper will explore these newly implemented policies to determine how university involvement in student activism may be constructive for the expression of student voices on college campuses. Historical and Theoretical Context Historical Context: Student Activism on College Campuses Student activism has historically focused on both internal institutional changes, such as updates to college curricula, and external issues, such as anti-British movements related to the Revolutionary War during the United States colonial period (Broadhurst, 2014). However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that student demonstrations reached their peak, as the American college population grew due to increased federal funding, and students became increasingly dissatisfied with societal trends after World War II. Throughout this period, student demonstrations focused on several national and international issues, most notably the Civil Rights Movement and the antiwar movement related to the Vietnam War. These movements produced several monumental student organizations focused on student activism, including the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee and the Students for Democratic Society (Broadhurst, 2014). In response to these protests, many institutions enforced policies and enacted strategies to minimize and silence student activists with reductive and sometimes tragic effects (Broadhurst, 2014). These consequences are exemplified by the deaths of four students participating in an antiwar protest at Kent State University in May of 1970 when students were fatally shot by the National Guardsmen who were called in to manage the demonstration (Broadhurst, 2014). In the wake of these historical precedents, student activism continues to be a major part of student involvement on college campuses in the 21st century (Wheatle & Commodore, 2019). Some of the most pressing modern issues include campus racial climates, rights for LGBTQ+ student populations, policies related to sexual violence, and, most recently, the conflict relating to the Israeli-Hamas War (Wheatle & Commodore, 2019). 56 • The Vermont Connection • 2025 • Volume 46 Theoretical Approach: The Institutional Response Framework While student activism often involves an interactional relationship between student demands and the university’s response, much of the existing literature on student activism focuses on the roles of the students rather than the responses of the institutions (Cho, 2018). To fill the gap in the literature examining institutional approaches to student activism, Cho proposed a new model, the Institutional Response Framework (IRF), for conceptualizing and categorizing university responses to student demands. This theory merges influences from institutional theory and critical race theory to place institu (...truncated)