Communication Key to Protest Management - Brief Article

Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, Oct, 2000 by Stephanie Brenowitz

Shuttle Diplomacy, Neutral Observers Help Administrators Defuse Emotions

Karen Kenney has an unusual component to her job as head of student affairs at Berkeley. It's called "protest management."

Whether it's a riot resulting from efforts to preserve a community park or a discussion about sweatshop labor, Kenney is usually there.

"We've probably had more student protests than any other campus in the nation," said Kenney, who has been on the job for more than 15 years. "I have been to literally hundreds of protests, and the campus has experienced many more. We have learned a lot over the years about what to do and we have systems in place to deal with it."

Earlier this year, student activists around the country were protesting the "sweatshop" labor practices of some companies that make the sweatshirts and other clothing sold by the schools.

Students had formed a watchdog group called the Workers Rights Coalition, to monitor the labor practices of such companies, and were asking their administrations to join the group.

Kenney did not wait for a full-blown demonstration to open up the dialogue. She suggested that the administration invite the students to a discussion about how to handle it. The two sides decided together to join the WRC on a probationary basis.

"It was a discussion that came about under threat of a protest, but we didn't wait until it exploded. You have to be proactive and know what the issues are," Kenney said.

Carol Cartwright, president of Kent State University, has opted to handle the most controversial issue on her campus head-on. At this year's 30th anniversary of the shooting deaths of four students at an anti-war rally, she helped dedicate a memorial that students had been requesting for 25 years and allowed students to broadcast a taped message from Mumia Abu Jamal, who is convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer

While she felt that his inclusion wasn't "in keeping with the spirit and goals of remembering this event, we were certainly not going to tell them not to do it," she said.

"We protect the right to free speech very seriously at Kent State."

The anniversary came off without incident. But to better channel such discussions in future years, she also instituted an annual symposium on democracy, freedom of expression, and society's need for order.

"We want to make sure that people understand the costs of violent confrontation," she said

"We want our students to be engaged with these questions, because intellectual engagement is part of the college experience."

Such tense situations cannot always be handled so deftly. Kenney has been in more than one situation that deteriorated. In 1991, she was at a demonstration in People's Park that degenerated.

"I remember running down Telegraph Avenue and seeing the sheriffs come towards me, shooting their rubber bullets," Kenney said. "Students were in the park, setting things on fire. It was very scary to be in the middle of that. At that point, it was beyond `protest management.' It had turned into a police action."

Three years ago, students were protesting the ban on affirmative action and got into a confrontation with police. Kenney said some of the protesters were attacking the police, so police sprayed them with pepper spray.

"I think the activists would say it was poorly handled and it wasn't warranted," Kenney said.

"But I think the police used the best judgment they could under the situation."

Most of the time, Kenney said, protesters are not disbanded or arrested. "Unless they are an imminent threat to someone's health or safety, we, as an administration, do not shut them down," Kenney said. "We support their right to protest."

Officials at the University of Oregon take a similar approach. "Our tactic is, as long as they are being respectful, we will recognize their freedom of speech," said Maureen Shine, spokeswoman for University of Oregon. "If they aren't causing problems or destroying property, we don't do too much to get into their way."

The University of Oregon has been in the spotlight this year for some anti-sweat-shop protests by its students. After agitation by the students to stop buying official school clothing produced by sweatshops, this spring the university voted to join the Worker's Rights Coalition. It was founded in opposition to the Fair Labor Association, an industry group that many activists have criticized for not being vigilant enough.

After the university joined the coalition, Nike's founder, Phil Knight, decided not to award a $30 million grant he was planning to give the school. Many garment-industry representatives still back the FLA.

During the demonstrations surrounding the decision to join the WRC, a handful of students were arrested for occupying Johnson Hall, an administrative building.

"They were in there after hours and we notified them that we were going to lock the building as we always do," she said. "If they wanted to stay, they had to understand that they were going to be arrested."

Kenney said that each administration has to learn the hard way sometimes.