Winter ‘26 Institute on Teaching Social Action

Institute Overview and Goals

The institute aims to train faculty to teach social action courses where students work to change policy through campaigns. Three main goals were established:

• Grapple with key ideas of the teaching social action model
• Build community among participating faculty across disciplines and regions
• Develop course syllabi for implementation

The model is intentionally non-commercial, with all trainers volunteering their time to build a movement rather than an organization. Currently 70 courses are running this semester, with a goal of reaching 500 courses per semester within five years.

Core Principles of the Teaching Social Action Model

Definition of Social Action: "When everyday people band together to develop their power to change policy"

Key principles established:

• Rooted in democracy and First Amendment rights to petition government for redress of grievances
• Students choose their own campaigns (not faculty)
• Students work as teams to attempt policy change during the semester
• Policy includes legislation, regulations, rules, norms, or institutional practices
• Students make demands of decision makers (not requests)

The model explicitly focuses on policy change and social justice citizenship, not just service or charity work.

Current Context: Challenges and Opportunities

Silver linings identified:

• Students are more engaged and paying attention to current events
• Greater sense of urgency and felt need for action among students
• Social policy has become highly relevant to those for whom it was previously invisible
• Opportunity to reimagine collective futures rather than maintain failing systems

Major concerns raised:

• Student safety, particularly for undocumented students and their families
• Faculty safety, especially for transgender and other marginalized faculty members
• Administrative pushback and institutional policies around "civil discourse"
• Student fears about public-facing campaign work and potential violence
• Apathy and anxiety among students who have been taught to be "nice" rather than confrontational

The institute will address risk mitigation strategies and provide sample communications with administrators.

Campaign Activities vs Campaign Actions

Campaign Actions are public displays of a group's power that put pressure on decision makers. Key characteristics:

• The target/decision maker feels the pressure directly
• Actions are public (not private meetings)
• Examples include: protests, sit-ins, marches, street theater, lobby days, walkouts, occupations

Campaign Activities are preparatory work that builds power but does not directly pressure the target. Examples include:

• Choosing targets and conducting research
• Writing press releases and making flyers
• Building group dynamics and commitments
• Internal organizing and coalition building

Critical distinction: If the decision maker doesn't know it's happening and doesn't feel pressure, it's an activity, not an action.

Faculty should start with low-pressure tactics and gradually increase pressure rather than immediately going to confrontational actions.

Pedagogical Approach and Student Transformation

The model is grounded in Freirean transformative pedagogy with active and reflective components. Students who have never done social action before (the majority) gain confidence and expertise through the process.

Key teaching strategies discussed:

• First 10 days focused on helping students believe change is possible
• Showing the "Walk the Walk" video to demonstrate student success
• Students work with real community campaigns and become subject matter experts
• Use of word association exercises to explore concepts like "power" with students
• Explicitly addressing power as often having negative connotations for marginalized students

Working class students who work 30+ hours per week do one hour less reading but spend that time on campaign work instead.

Community Building Among Faculty

Faculty emphasized the value of building community across institutions, disciplines, and regions. Concerns were raised about finding pedagogical community and ideological alignment within departments, particularly in controversial disciplines.

The institute provides:

• Coaches from similar disciplines
• Ongoing accessibility to organizers for troubleshooting
• Summer syllabi review sessions
• Regional and disciplinary networking opportunities

Several faculty noted feeling isolated in traditional academic settings and finding this community transformative for their work.

Institute Structure and Commitments

The three-day institute includes seven sessions covering:

• Introduction to the model and campaign activities/actions (Sessions 1-3)
• Active and reflective components of teaching (Sessions 4-5)
• Syllabus creation (Session 5)
• Overcoming challenges (Session 6)
• Where to go from here and movement building (Session 7)

Required commitment: At least 50% of course content must focus on social action.

Practical Exercise Outcomes

Faculty completed exercises categorizing campaign activities versus actions. Key learnings:

• Target meetings early in campaigns are activities; later accountability sessions with media present are actions
• Choosing strategies and targets are activities (preparatory work)
• Accountability sessions require 20+ people and media involvement to be effective actions
• Initial private meetings with decision makers should not be "gotcha politics" but opportunities for dialogue

Workshop Overview

This was the first day of a multi-day training for faculty learning to teach social action courses. The facilitators were @Untitled, @Untitled, and Sasha. The primary focus was on helping students move from campaign activities to actual actions, and maintaining momentum throughout the semester.

Critical Success Factors for Social Action Courses

The workshop emphasized two main factors that determine whether courses succeed or fail:

• Maintaining momentum - Getting students through campaign activities early and often to reach actual actions
• Quality of demands and targets - Ensuring demands are quantifiable, specific, and structured with clear decision-makers identified

Course Structure and Timeline Model

The recommended model front-loads issue development and spaces out activities to prevent student burnout:

• Issue Development (Weeks 1-3): Choose campaign, demands, and target
• Building Power (Weeks 3-6): Research, recruitment, tactics
• Campaign Launch (Week 7-9): Kickoff event and actions

The model alternates between active (doing) and reflective (thinking) components to maintain engagement while allowing time for learning.

Key principle: "On your mark, go, get set" - Students choose their campaign immediately (go), then reflect and prepare (get set) rather than spending too much time preparing before starting.

Issue Identification Approaches

Three different faculty approaches were shared:

Scott's Approach: Used Mural board with categories for active campaigns, inactive campaigns, community campaigns, and student ideas. Students do "speed dating" with community organizations, then vote using ranked choice over 3-4 class sessions.

Sasha's Approach: Pre-class assignment to review past campaigns on website. Community partners join via Zoom. Students pitch new ideas in week two with at least one demand identified. Uses ranked choice voting with second and third choices to help reform groups.

Arun Argawal's Approach: Extensive brainstorming exercise starting with 200+ ideas on sticky notes, then grouping and refining over 2-3 class sessions until reaching practical campaigns.

Helping Students Scale Their Ideas

Students often propose campaigns that are either too large (nuclear disarmament) or too small (changing a website).

For too large: Ask if achievable within 2-3 years. Help scale down from national to state to local to campus level.

For too small: Ask about community impact - will lives be meaningfully better because of this change?

The "Goldilocks factor": Not too big, not too small, just right.

Writing Effective Demands

Effective demands must be:

• One sentence and crystal clear
• Specific and quantifiable with numbers, not vague terms like "more"
• Include cost with dollar amounts
• Have 60-70% support - overwhelming support makes campaigns winnable
• Maximum three demands with one non-negotiable priority

The workshop reviewed three real student examples showing common problems:

• Too general ("more recycling bins") - needs specific numbers and types
• Missing target information - need names and contact info for decision-makers
• Not a policy change - focusing on volunteerism rather than institutional change

Expect 4-10 drafts of demands with students.

Selecting Targets

Targets must be:

• Lowest-ranking decision-maker who can say yes to the demand
• Specific individuals with names, photos, and contact information
• For committees: Identify which members to focus on to achieve majority support

Five Campaign Activities for Issue Development

These activities happen in the first 2-3 weeks:

1. Issue identification (choose the campaign topic)
2. Choose 1-3 demands
3. Select the target
4. Name the group
5. Conduct student and stakeholder interviews

Optional sixth activity: Student organization application (if required by campus).

Tracking Student Progress

Scott demonstrated a Mural board system for monitoring all campaign teams:

• Each section (issue development, building power, etc.) has a box listing required deliverables
• Teams post their completed work directly on the board
• Instructor checks board twice weekly and emails teams with feedback
• All teams can see each other's progress, creating healthy competition

Alternative: Any visual tracking system works - the key is frequent monitoring and communication.

Working with Community Organizations

When partnering with community groups, establish clear expectations:

• Students form a student wing of the organization
• Students organize on campus, may take action in community
• Students coordinate all activities with the community organization
• Don't expect students to attend community events (they're busy)
• Community organizers welcome to visit class
• Never proceed if community org doesn't support the approach

Invitation template shared for recruiting community partners emphasizing need for policy change focus and willingness to have students conduct actions.

Reference Materials

@Untitled created a three-page reference document consolidating:

• Recommended topic order for 15-week course
• Weekly timeline with class sessions
• Campaign activities for each phase
• Required assignments and deliverables
• Portfolio assignments
• Color-coded to show when activities begin and continue

Session Logistics Notes

• 17 participants attended (10 expected participants absent)
• Workshop runs afternoon hours, which affects energy levels
• Streamlined from previous versions - removed approximately 27-29 slides
• Small group activity took longer than expected - future sessions will use 3-minute time limit and 3-4 people per group instead of 2
• Addressing participant concerns upfront helped people relax into the material

Key Warnings for New Instructors

From end-of-semester faculty surveys, the biggest challenges are:

• Students don't understand difference between activities and actions
• Administrative delays and too many meetings prevent reaching actions
• Timing issues - need to start early and maintain momentum
• Need to emphasize importance of actions more throughout course

Most common faculty reflection after first time teaching: "I need to get students started earlier, manage them more, communicate more, and push them more."

Reflections on Day 1

• Participants appreciated the activity distinguishing between actions and activities, noting it would challenge students as well
• Faculty expressed gratitude for the supportive community and willingness to share models and best practices
• Discussion of the relationship between participatory and social justice approaches to social change resonated with participants
• The sense of community and connection was highlighted as an important form of resistance and self-care for activists
• Several faculty noted how teaching this course has helped reconnect them with their reasons for being in academia

Five Key Campaign Activities in Issue Development

The five essential activities students must complete in 2-3 weeks:

1. Define the issue
2. Establish demands
3. Identify the target
4. Name the student group
5. Conduct stakeholder interviews

<empty-

Important: If students haven't completed these activities by the end of week 3, faculty should reach out to @Untitled or their assigned coach for support

Stakeholder and Student Interviews

• Portfolio 1 includes sample interview questions for both stakeholders and students
• Student interviews test whether demands resonate with the campus community
• Questions assess: concern about the issue, personal impact, agreement with demands, and willingness to participate
• Faculty responsibility: Help students identify appropriate stakeholders in the community
• Faculty should provide contact information for community leaders but let students make the initial outreach
• If stakeholders don't respond to students after multiple attempts, faculty can provide a "bump" by contacting them directly

Creating Effective Demands

Characteristics of good demands:

• Clear and concise
• Specific and measurable
• Doable
• Include the cost/budget estimate
• State the group name, not individual names
• Identify the appropriate decision-making target

Group examples developed during training:

Food Insecurity (Hungry Bears):

• Create a food pantry with healthy options, accessible hours, and student management
• Provide free standard meal plans for Pell Grant recipients (and consider undocumented students)
• Estimated cost needed but not yet calculated
• Target: VP of Student Affairs or Dining Services Director

Professional Clothing (Dress for Success):

• Create a clothing closet for School of Social Work students attending interviews
• Provide physical space and funding for staffing
• Budget for acquiring and dry cleaning high-quality donations
• Target: School Director or Career Advising Center Director

Tuition Reduction:

• Cap tuition increases over five years (specific percentage needs clarification - freeze vs. limited increase)
• Increase grant applications by 5% over two years for scholarships and stipends
• Target: Board of Trustees (but consider starting with lower-ranking officials first)

Faculty Responsibilities in Demand Development

• Help students refine demands through multiple drafts (4-5+ revisions may be needed)
• Provide organizational charts to help students identify the correct target
• Encourage students to research costs and include budget estimates
• Review the campaigns on the Teaching Social Action website for examples of well-crafted demands
• A review team will provide feedback on student demands before they're posted publicly

Policies on Controversial Campaigns

Faculty should establish clear policies about acceptable campaign topics:

@Untitled's policy:

• Campaigns must be nonviolent in words and deeds (no ad hominem attacks)
• Must not violate the UN Declaration of Human Rights

Alternative approaches:

• Social work courses: Campaigns must align with CSWE and NASW values
• Discipline-specific: Use professional association values and ethics frameworks
• Course-specific: For courses like "Anti-Black Racism," require campaigns to be anti-racist

Important consideration: Balance protecting course integrity with demonstrating political neutrality - focus on teaching method, not ideology

Building Power Through Recruitment and Allies

11 Key Activities for Building Power (takes ~3 weeks):

1. Create an organizational rap (recruitment pitch)
2. Create a sign-up sheet (often done via QR code now)
3. Create a flyer
4. Post flyers around campus
5. Create signs for tabling
6. Develop tabling schedule
7. Reach out to student and community groups
8. Schedule classroom presentations (students can present in their other classes)
9. Create Instagram profile and link
10. Set meeting dates with new recruits
11. Choose a recruitment leader

Examples and templates for all these activities are available in the 3E companion guide

Identifying Campus and Community Allies

Campus allies identified by participants:

• Student organizations related to the issue (use searchable databases)
• Identity-based organizations (first-gen students, students of color, etc.)
• Campus ministry and faith communities
• Student housing and campus security
• Academic departments and clubs (e.g., Nutrition and Science Club)
• Campus resource centers (women's center, LGBTQ+ center)
• Career services and field placement offices

Community allies:

• Faith leaders and interfaith organizations (powerful voices on moral issues)
• Anti-poverty organizations
• Local nonprofits addressing related issues
• Union leaders
• Local farms (for food insecurity issues)

Faculty responsibility: Build and maintain a list of potential allies to share with students; this list will grow each time you teach the course

Engaging New Recruits

• Give new recruits a task immediately to deepen their commitment
• Tasks can include: providing feedback on the org rap, joining tabling events, attending stakeholder meetings
• Offer community, not just a cause (similar to how organizations like the NRA build power)
• Every campaign action should include a recruitment component

Campaign Launch Actions

Types of campaign actions discussed:

1. Rally
2. Petition drive
3. Direct negotiation/accountability session
4. Occupation of space
5. Street theater
6. Media events

Example: Revolutionary Picnic (food insecurity campaign):

• Occupy public space across from dining hall
• Provide free food to students
• Display signs about food insecurity
• Circulate petition supporting demands
• Partner with student organizations
• Contact local media

Example: Accountability Session (food insecurity):

• Meet with target at the dining hall
• Bring students who have experienced food insecurity to share stories
• Present research on costs and number of meals needed
• Use visual aids showing healthy meal plates vs. actual student meals

Example: Rally with Craft Component (tuition caps):

• 10-15+ students participate
• Issue press release 4 days in advance
• Create space for petition signatures
• Students speak about tuition impact on their lives
• Public contributes to craft project (e.g., quilt with stories) to display outside president's office
• Campaign and faith leaders speak about moral dimensions
• Ask target directly to meet demands with press present

Lessons from Student Homeless Alliance Campaign

Key elements of successful campaign action (from video):

• Personal narratives are very powerful (student who experienced homelessness spoke publicly)
• Research and data to support demands (13% = 4,000 students)
• Translation of statistics into concrete numbers people can understand
• Students maintained control of the conversation and stayed on message
• Multiple speakers and visual representations of impact
• Clear, reasonable demands presented professionally

Student Campaign Examples

• Reviewed video of SJSU students launching a campaign against sweatshop labor in university apparel
• Campaign involved three students who successfully got media coverage and a response from university administration
• Students wanted SJSU to join the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), partnering with nearly 200 other schools
• President's office responded publicly, demonstrating how small groups can create significant pressure
• Campaign succeeded in getting a target meeting three weeks later where students had all answers prepared

Safety Considerations for Students

• Civil disobedience: Recommendation to avoid breaking the law during the semester due to current political climate
• Vulnerable students: International and undocumented students should consider not participating in public actions
• Alternative roles: research, flyer creation, background work
• However, students should be informed of risks and allowed to make their own choices
• Rapid response teams: Suggestion to create teams with specific roles (videographer, note taker, community liaison) if ICE or provocateurs appear
• Safety protocols: Escort students to cars after events, plan for safe exits

Group Dynamics - Part One (Early Semester)

Creating positive group dynamics from the start:

• Establish community agreements and clear roles
• Define group norms in writing
• Assign a "vibes watcher" role to monitor group emotional dynamics
• Use story exchanges to build understanding within groups
• Have students discuss their privilege and lack of privilege to build intersectional awareness

Key roles to establish:

• Facilitator (should rotate - cannot be same person throughout)
• Scribe
• Vibes watcher (especially effective for non-traditional leaders)
• Research coordinator

Decision-making processes to establish early:

• Voting vs. consensus
• Be explicit about which method will be used for different decisions
• Minor decisions (pizza vs. Chinese food) can be voted on
• Important decisions (tactics) require consensus

Accountability structures:

• End each meeting by documenting who committed to do what
• Start next meeting with status updates on commitments
• Practice asking others to step in when you cannot follow through
• Consider using a student contract that members sign

Group Dynamics - Part Two (Mid-Semester)

Additional skills needed:

• Learning to give constructive feedback without being overly "nice"
• Creating effective agendas
• Managing different personality types in meetings
• Facilitator stepping down when advocating for personal position

Conflict resolution strategies:

• Address issues directly rather than avoiding them
• Moon exercise: Groups score better than individuals when they challenge each other
• Plant "devil's advocate" roles in exercises to demonstrate value of constructive disagreement

Leadership redefinition:

• Challenge traditional hierarchical leadership models
• Emphasize collaborative, shared leadership
• Many students (especially women and students of color) don't see themselves as leaders but possess important leadership skills
• Active listening, flyer-making, and other contributions are forms of leadership

Change Theory

Theoretical frameworks to consider:

• Women-centered approaches (Ella Baker, bell hooks) presented first in curriculum
• Saul Alinsky's confrontational organizing model
• Materialist vs. idealist perspectives on social change
• Faculty should bring theoretical perspectives from their own disciplines

Application to campaigns:

• Woman-centered approach emphasizes collective effort and community impact
• Students often need to understand both collaborative approaches and power-based confrontation
• "Mama bear" framing helps students connect caregiving with aggressive advocacy when needed

Social Action Tours

Purpose and structure:

• Walk campus to identify historical sites of justice struggles
• Takes approximately 75 minutes
• Gets students out of classroom and into physical space of campus history

SJSU tour example includes:

• Tower Hall: Site with sanitized poetry that excludes economic justice themes
• Japanese American internment site where 6,000 people were processed
• Building where 23 sexual assaults occurred
• Cesar Chavez Plaza: Site of student walkouts and first Earth Day car burial
• Tommie Smith and John Carlos statue honoring 1968 Olympic protest

Recommendations for developing your own tour:

• Listen to campus community members who know the history
• Consult special collections librarians
• Start with land acknowledgments
• Look for sanitized history on plaques and monuments
• Research removed monuments and controversial campus history
• Even 3-4 sites can be powerful
• Ask students: "What's your legacy going to be?"

Research Component

Types of research needed:

• Historical analysis: What has been tried before and what happened?
• Needs assessment: Scope and consequences of the problem
• Power mapping: Who supports, opposes, or is neutral?
• Target analysis: Understanding decision-makers
• Comparison research: What are peer institutions doing?

Making research public and visual:

• Convert written analysis into PDFs for presentations
• Create visual power maps showing allies, opponents, and neutral parties
• Use infographics and visual timelines
• Consider documentary interviews with affected community members
• "$2 More" video example: Students interviewed minimum wage workers about impact of $2/hour raise

Dividing research responsibilities:

• Split 6-person groups into pairs: power map, historical analysis, target analysis
• This is one of the few collectively graded assignments
• Instructor can adjust individual grades based on interviews about actual contribution

Power mapping considerations:

• Identify opponents but don't focus on them too early
• Goal is not to convert opponents but to neutralize them
• Understanding opposition helps prevent overwhelming students

Campaign Launch and Target Meetings

Recommended first actions:

• Rally combined with press conference is ideal campaign launch
• Street theater, occupations, or other tactics are also possible
• Goal: Generate media coverage AND get response from target
• Media attention alone is not success - need target engagement

Preparing for target meetings:

• Students should meet beforehand to practice and prepare
• Decide in advance who will say what
• Consider holding public action immediately before meeting
• Send press release about meeting to media (do NOT share with administration beforehand)

Faculty role during target meetings:

• Act as witness without speaking
• Your presence changes power dynamics and protects students
• Only intervene if students are attacked or treated disrespectfully
• Help students debrief and prepare for post-meeting press conference
• Ask: "What did you get out of the meeting? What was positive?"

Student Homeless Alliance example:

• Six months of work to get meeting with president
• President initially responded aggressively to press conference tactic
• Students rejected on immediate demands but got commitment to "house every Spartan"
• Used that commitment to hold administration accountable when only 6 of 108 students were actually housed
• Eventually won 12-bed emergency housing program and five-page negotiated agreement

Course Structure and Timing

Key milestones:

• Week 1: Issue development begins
• Weeks 3-4: Building power exercises
• Week 7-8: Campaign launch/first action
• After launch: Campaign planning (not before)
• Throughout: Reflective components on group dynamics, theory, research

Philosophy: "On your mark, go!"

• Do action first, then plan
• Traditional approach would plan first, but this delays action
• Goal is democratic experience, not just winning
• Students learn more from doing than from planning

Three possible outcomes to communicate:

• Win the campaign
• Lose the campaign
• Pass it on to next semester's students

Writing Press Releases

• Guide is on page 105 of textbook under Campaign Launch section
• Send to assignment desks at TV/radio stations
• Faculty should help students write first press release as they have no experience
• Students should identify 3 media outlets and find their assignment desk contacts

Meeting Overview

Final day of the teaching institute focused on syllabus creation, course construction, and implementation strategies for social action courses. The session included reflections on Days 1-2, detailed workshop on syllabus development, and planning for future support.

Opening Reflections and Progress

• Participants reported significant clarity gains from Day 2, particularly around campaign actions and the practical implementation of the model
• Videos from previous sessions were highlighted as especially helpful for understanding what campaigns look like in practice
• Several participants began identifying specific community partners and campus resources for their courses

Campaign Evaluation Methods

Campaign Binders and Documentation

• Students create both physical binders and PDF summaries of their campaign work
• Binders include: research sections, historical analysis, target analysis, power maps, and documentation of all campaign activities
• PDFs serve as more shareable, scannable summaries - especially useful when multiple faculty are teaching the course
• These materials are critical for campaign continuity when passed to future semesters

Final Presentations

• Students give 20-minute presentations selecting 3-4 course topics to discuss their key learnings
• Presentations count for 20% of final grade

Syllabus Creation Workshop

Course Structure Considerations

• Participants were grouped by course length (10-week, 12-week, 14-15 week) and meeting frequency for targeted discussions
• Key decisions include: ordering the 12 class topics, selecting readings/books, determining if campaigns must focus on specific issues, setting minimum/maximum campaign group sizes
• Campus vs. community-based campaigns presents different safety considerations for both students and faculty

"Seven Weeks and Go" Timeline

• New accelerated framework introduced to ensure students reach campaign actions, not just activities
• Addresses challenge that many student groups complete campaign activities but never reach actual actions
• Provides 7 weeks for foundational work (issue identification, power building, research) and remaining weeks for planning and executing actions

Assignments and Assessment

Portfolio Assignments

• Weekly reflective writing assignments worth 40% of grade
• Students apply course concepts to their campaign work and reflect on personal transformation
• Example portfolios demonstrated students moving from viewing power negatively to understanding civic power positively
• Some faculty allow voice recordings as alternative to written submissions, particularly helpful for international students

Reading Quizzes

• Many participants planning to add quizzes (20% of grade) to incentivize reading, even though course readings are relatively brief
• Quizzes can be simple, multiple-choice, and auto-graded through learning management systems

Work Logs

• Students track hours spent on campaign work (15-20 hours per semester recommended)
• Some faculty structuring logs to require specific minimum hours of action work, not just general campaign activities

Campaign Binder and Presentation

• Combined worth 20% of grade

Course Content Balance

Integrating Other Required Content

• Rule of thumb: At least 50% of course must be devoted to social action content
• When courses must cover other material, key is finding ways to connect that content to the campaign work
• Example: Special education course connects disability rights movement history to current advocacy needs
• Social work programs can align with Grand Challenges framework

Campaign Group Dynamics

Optimal Group Sizes

• Recommended minimum: 3-4 students per campaign
• Recommended maximum: 4-5 students
• Groups of 6+ struggle with scheduling and may have members who don't contribute
• Larger groups (20-30 students) possible for established campaigns but require breaking into sub-groups with specific roles

Ensuring Accountability

• Students create community agreements for how they'll function as a campaign team
• Private peer evaluations at semester end, grading teammates on specific contributions and adherence to agreements

Campaign Sustainability Strategies

Primary Challenge

• Many campaigns end when the semester concludes because students graduate or lose momentum
• Only about 10% of campaigns become sustainable student organizations that continue beyond one semester

Sustainability Solutions

• Recruit another faculty member at your institution to teach the course in alternating semesters
• Incentivize current students to recruit freshmen/sophomores who can continue campaigns in future semesters
• Partner with regional coalitions of other institutions where students could collaborate on community campaigns
• Work with field placement offices to make community partners into field placements, allowing students to continue campaign work
• Seek external funding to pay students to continue campaign work between semesters (example: $250,000/year supporting 6-8 students)

Resources and Support

Available Materials

• Model syllabi from multiple faculty available for adaptation
• All portfolio questions, quiz questions, and assignment descriptions accessible through companion guide
• Articles, videos, student reflections organized by course topic
• Faculty who have taught the course are accessible for questions and mentorship

Enrollment Support

• Create promotional flyers for the course - examples provided from successful courses
• Several courses were canceled this semester due to low enrollment, highlighting importance of marketing

Special Considerations

Online and Hybrid Courses

• Limited face-to-face time requires creative scheduling for campaign check-ins
• May need individual or small group meetings outside regular class time

Courses with Specific Focus

• Possible to limit campaigns to specific topics (e.g., gun violence, feminism, mental health) while maintaining student choice within those parameters
• Integrating with existing events (like state lobby days) requires careful timing and may limit student ownership

Freshman-Level Courses

• Additional challenges with freshmen who aren't familiar with campus/community and may not have chosen to take a social action course
• Recommendation: Start with issue identification immediately to build student investment

Overview

Final session (sessions 6 and 7) of a three-day institute focused on overcoming challenges in teaching social action and building a movement for pedagogical change

Managing Risks and Support Systems

• Faculty are not alone in taking risks: 70 faculty currently teaching this model, with support network available via text/email
• Faculty can serve as coaches rather than experts - don't need to have done social action themselves to guide students effectively
• Model is "a bit messy" - requires flexibility and trust in the process
• Transparency with students about the experimental nature is valuable

Student Safety Considerations

• Dr. Ben Little's safety framework from University of East Anglia shared: activities must be safe, completely nonviolent, legal, align with UN Declaration of Human Rights
• Dominique's comprehensive safety planning worksheet developed after student protest on Gaza - covers everything from site assessment to safety teams, counter-protester preparation, and communication plans
• Scott's approach: inform students police will likely be present at large actions, sometimes proactively contact police as faculty advisor to set expectations

Language to Reduce Retaliation

• Political neutrality statement developed with dean approval: campaigns can come from any political perspective (liberal, conservative, social Democrat, libertarian, or no ideology); professor teaches democracy and change, not political indoctrination; students choose and can change campaigns anytime
• Alternative framing as "campus and community improvement" rather than emphasizing "social action" - aligns with DEI office rebranding as "student success"
• Successfully used at Baldwin State University (Ohio) to pass anti-DEI legislation committee review by emphasizing skill development and neutral framework

Handling Skeptical Administration - Case Studies

Case 1: President upset about being "called out"

• Scenario: Administrator felt attacked after students used word "demand" and called them out by name at press conference
• Effective responses: Acknowledge feelings, explain "demand" is a term of art (not personal attack), emphasize this is about the position's power not the person, redirect conversation to direct meeting with students
• Outcome: Scott emphasized students were respectful and urged president not to miss opportunity; students brought flowers to meeting as peace gesture; president agreed to demand and monument is being built

Case 2: University of Alabama DEI protest

• Scenario: Cassie Simon received email threatening consequences for student rally against total DEI ban, citing concerns about forced political activity and university neutrality
• Suggested responses: Students had option for politically neutral campaigns; learning about democracy is not political; this is student-identified issue not university position; professor didn't schedule rally so can't cancel it; contact union rep; go talk to administrator in person
• Outcome: Students decided to proceed with rally on Monday instead of Friday; ACLU contacted professor to be lead on lawsuit against Alabama; professor teaching two social action classes next semester and hosting institute

Key Takeaways from the Model

1. Manage all campaign activities closely to ensure students reach a campaign action - more involvement than typical teaching
2. Demands and targets must be "good" or the model breaks down - students write them, facilitators provide feedback to first-time instructors
3. Three core components: issue development, building power, campaign launch - if not doing all three, it's not social action
4. On your mark, GO, get set - model emphasizes doing first, then reflecting; don't get stuck in planning phase

Building a Movement

Why This Model Hasn't Existed Before

• Community organizing typically discussed but semester-long organizing not feasible
• Focus has been on case studies, role plays, speakers, or campaign plans that aren't executed
• Social action (policy change) can happen in one semester with necessary compromises

Impact Areas

• Transformation for students - most memorable experience more than any essay they've written
• Transformation for faculty - often haven't taught this way before
• Civic and democratic imperative - democracy needs engaged citizens
• Pre-professional skills - structured real-world experience working in groups, public speaking, problem-solving

Organizational Approach

• Volunteer-driven movement, not building traditional organization with staff and board
• Avoids movement being defined as "Scott's thing" - becomes defined by the work and different voices
• Focus on infrastructure: trainings, meetups, summits, website, coaching system

Current Scale

• 700 faculty trained over 2.5 years
• Growth from 15 courses two semesters ago to 30 in fall to 70 courses in spring
• Courses across US and internationally (Europe, Africa, India, Pakistan)

Networking Strategies

By Discipline

• Social work (55+ trained faculty): disciplinary statement in development, identifying conferences for pre-conference institutes, targeting journals for publications, embedding in accreditation process, identifying influential faculty to champion model
• Environmental studies: second largest group with 30-35 trained faculty
• Other discipline groups: education, art and English, sociology, social sciences

By Region

• State/regional organizing enables student collaboration on statewide campaigns
• Michigan example: Notion page for communication, sharing campaigns across institutions, syllabus workshops, school-specific faculty sharing (course materials in D2L), partnership with University Outreach and Engagement office for community connections

Participant-Generated Ideas

• Regional organizations often more focused on teaching than larger national organizations focused on scholarship
• Online social work community for sharing strategies
• Teaching future teachers to use model at elementary/high school level, tie to civic engagement requirements
• National art exhibition for social action campaigns - documentation/video plus art projects

Commitments and Support

Four Required Commitments

1. Teach the course within 18 months
2. Attend syllabi review workshop (next one June 19th, 3pm Eastern)
3. Submit student campaign survey with specific, concrete, measurable demands
4. Fill out end-of-semester survey and attend virtual summit (May 7th, 3pm Eastern)

Available Support

• Coaching available from trained faculty in various disciplines
• Meetups for faculty currently teaching (next: February 20th, 3pm Eastern)
• Disciplinary meetings (social work: February 10th, 1-2pm)
• Direct support: text/email Scott, Sasha, Bobby anytime
• Guest speaking: Scott available to speak to classes, especially helpful after students choose targets and demands

Cost to Host Institute

• Approximately $4,000-$5,000 total: $2,000 for food/coffee for participants, plus flight and hotel for facilitator
• No facilitator fee charged (honorarium accepted but not requested)
• Must teach the course first before hosting an institute

Participant Reflections

• Confidence despite expected chaos: uncertainty before institute replaced with confidence and support
• Not waiting for research to be complete and helping students be less nice
• Feeling supported: comfort in knowing can reach out for help
• Importance of early issue and target identification and pursuing direct meetings with targets
• Embrace messiness as strength and enjoy the experience