This piece includes the advice of several anonymous authors who have each contributed to at least one of the following causes: Police Free Penn, Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes, Justice 4 Mackenzie, Coalition Against Fraternity Sexual Assault, Student Labor Action Project, and Radical Southeast Asian Collective. Several interviewees were also a part of the 7b and thus worked closely with the administration.
Contributions will be marked with the following initials. An asterisk indicates fake initials were used to maintain anonymity.
- TM, they/them: anonymous SLAP & CAFSA alum*
- WP, they/them: anonymous alum involved in various anti-violence groups*
- KM, she/her: Police Free Penn, Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes & Justice 4 Mackenzie alum
- CQ, they/them: anonymous 7B member*
- GV, they/them: Police Free Penn & Coalition to Save the UC Townhomes member
- FD, they/them: anonymous CAFSA alum*
Student and community-led protests have been an integral part of Penn’s history, and they will continue to be for decades. However, when planning a protest, it’s important to be mindful of the physical and emotional wellbeing of all participants, as well as set a concrete set of realistic goals. We’ve compiled reflections from generations of undergraduate and graduate student organizers at Penn:
Create community and build trust internally before creating goals.
Create community norms and hold each other accountable within your space.
- FD suggests to “start with community norms and expectations for working together.”
- “Don’t get bogged down in the details. You’re all there for similar reasons, and it’s more important to start working towards semi-imperfect demands than it is to spend weeks arguing over wording/minutia and breaking down teamwork, respect, and trust.”
Make space for all voices but recognize that not everyone should have equal weight.
- GV encourages folks to “check your privilege and identity that you bring into a space.”
- “Not everyone’s input into the demands should have equal weight and that’s ok,” explains KM.
- Work with organizers from Philly! These individuals understand their community’s tensions, dynamics, and needs, as well as the systems of oppression at work in Philadelphia.
- WP suggests folks “compile demands first as a small group, then seek input from community members and people outside of the group,” via social media or town halls, for example. (ex. using social media or at a town hall-like event).”
It is okay to change your mind and make mistakes!
- FD emphasizes that “it is okay to be wrong, to change course, to be accountable, and to apologize. This is true interpersonally and on an organizational level.”
- They continue, saying that demands “can evolve! That is okay! Choose regular intervals to reevaluate.”
Be cognizant of your internal organizing structure.
- CQ says that it’s important to trust yourself as an organizer, as long as you are centering your organization’s values.
- “You have agency as an organizer. We all feel pressured to have certain demands, but make sure to take time and name those pressures and think through the consequences of those demands.”
- “Have patience and grace with yourself and your co-leaders. You will need each other to successfully plan a direct action; foster those relationships and support each other.”
- “Center your org’s core values and remember your role. If you can’t reconcile a demand with those values, you probably shouldn’t be advocating for it.”
- Meet people where they are in terms of capacity and commitment.
- “Sometimes, hierarchical structures are okay in organizing to prevent burnout, give people the amount of commitment they want, and to make things happen,” says FD.
Build community to gather a trustworthy support network.
Quality over quantity: Prioritize consistent support rather than gathering a short-term large group.
- FD explains that “a consistent and steady presence is better than one big action peryear in terms of gaining student trust and building your network.”
Understand peoples’ capacity for involvement and still push them to interact more.
- “Most Penn students, even if they care about the goals of the action, are pretty risk averse. Try to include multiple ways for people to be involved– perhaps there’s a sit in with an email blast, for example. Start small and work your way up to build trust among students,” says FD.
- Of course, you should always meet people where they’re at, but that doesn’t mean you can’t encourage them to question why they feel unable (or unwilling) to get involved.
Create strong foundations so that people have a reason to support your cause.
- FD elaborates, “support building needs to start well before any action. A clear outline of demands and goals, some sort of online presence, and word of mouth will go a long way in making sure that people know what your group does and why it matters.”
Build community across organizations.
- “Coalition building is essential, not always, but often other groups will show up for you if you show up for them,” explains KM.
- CQ encourages groups to “rally other student orgs. You want as many as you can get so they can reach out to their constituents on your issue’s behalf.”
- They addCQ adds that it’s helpful to use “flyers, social media blasts, listservs, and word-of-mouth! Once you have other orgs supporting you, have them reach out to their constituents. If your issue might seem to affect only a specific subset of the community, make clear who is wanted at your direct action.”
Market thoroughly and across many avenues.
Tips for encouraging community involvement:
- Start far enough ahead of time people can plan to attend.
- “Protests that are advertised/noted in newsletters (i.e. [CAFSA’s] Un Violador en tu Camino 2019 with CLALS) and for which postering is done early enough (5-7 days) can draw in both professors/staff and students, not only undergrads,” advises WP.
- FD encourages to “get any promo out at least a week beforehand to any listservs, GroupMes, flyering locations, Instagram stories, etc.”
- Decide on a publicity strategy beforehand.
- FD asks the following questions before proceeding with protests: Are you going to be interviewed, and if so, anonymously or non-anonymously? To what extent are you comfortable with DP or other news coverage? How about social media?
- TM says to make sure and “give the DP/news outlets warning before actions so they can send someone to cover the event.” Most news outlets need at least a week’s notice to ensure a reporter can attend, so factor that into your outreach if media coverage is important to you.
Cover a variety of bases when spreading the word!
- Newsletters
- TM says to become familiar with when regular newsletters are posted each week so that you don’t miss deadlines to submit.
- Postering/flyering
- KM says to flyer bathrooms so that people are forced to look at them.
- Social media
- TM says to circulate posts within protest and affinity group social media accounts, but also to get followers to share!
- Infographics
- TM says to “make accessible infographics and put them in all the group chats.” There are several online resources about making social media posts accessible, but start with including image descriptions in captions or comments!
- FD says to “have a bit.ly or a qr code to a page with more information.” You can always have a longer document linked in a Linktree in your social media bio.
- Tabling
- “Tabling on campus allows you to connect with people directly and answer their questions and make connections between different issues/experiences,” says KM.
- Op-eds
- Talk to people!
- “Build connections with people, know who can do what and who knows who. Talk to strangers that show up to actions, get their contact info, follow up with them. Do this with as many people as possible. Organizing and winning demands is partially a numbers game,” explains KM.
- “Asking individual friends to support is always more effective than mass group chat invites. Sharing graphics on social media can only do so much. Bring people from classes or guilt friends to attend before hanging out together,” says TM.
Strategize where and when should protests occur.
Where: Prioritize visibility and theme when choosing a location.
- TM says, “Visibility is the most important thing. College Green, the Button, the LOVE Statue, and a march down Locust are the common public places. Locust Walk is public property so anyone can protest there.”
- TM explains that “if you are protesting specific administrators, it is also good to camp outside their office or building.”
- “If your action is tied to a location, do it there, granted it’s somewhat public. (ex. Castle, the SP2/Caster building),” says FD.
- GV adds that “34th and Walnut is good for pulling in a West Philly crowd as well.”
When: Find times when the most people will pass by, but be conscious of class schedules and exam periods.
- TM explains that “time of day is tricky because you want the most visibility (generally between classes between 10am-2pm) but Penn students will rarely skip class for protests.”
- “The catch-22 is that the most visible times are those when classes are scheduled. To get the most visibility, a direct action would have to conflict with classes. But conflicting with classes leads to poor turnout, which decreases visibility and impact. Fridays may be best because administrators are on campus while many students have few or no classes. If your goal is to decrease turnout for classes (like a walkout), this wouldn’t be ideal, either,” says CQ.
- KM adds that “days where outside people are coming to campus (potential student days, alumni weekend, etc.)” are really good to attract attention from people outside the insular student community.
- [[add a summary of sorts here, i think this advice id kinda conflicting so maybe emphasize that ultimately it’s about what your personal goals are as opposed to there being one correct way]
Get funding when possible.
Be resourceful and creative when trying to access Penn funds.
- TM says it is sometimes “possible to have Penn-affiliated groups sponsor protests. These groups can expense printing money for protest flyers without publicizing the content they are printing. This is sometimes tricky and should always be dependent on the comfort levels of the groups printing for you.”
- “You can always go to the LGBT center and the Kelly’s Writers House for limited free printing,” explains TM.
- KM says, “we’ve received funding from a faculty’s research funding, from civic house, and random donations from students.”
The before: planning an action
Be thorough and thoughtful about all possible outcomes before jumping into the thick of it.
- FD says to “have a clear and concise statement of purpose and goals or demands, accessible somewhere online and then clearly at the protest itself”
- “Before any action, think through the possible risks and rewards – Do the rewards outweigh the risks? how can you tune your action until this is true?” explains FD.
- “Provide a clear breakdown of potential risks and consequences for multiple possible scenarios.”
- FD encourages to “provide a clear outline for those joining on the level of escalation appropriate. Be firm that if people escalate alone or recklessly, they will be asked to leave.”
- FD encourages folks to look to the future before you even begin
- “Have a plan for next steps – What happens if your demands are met? What happens if they are not?”
- GV says to plan ahead for threats but remember to look back at the lack of historical repercussions for protesters at Penn.
- “They will threaten you and harass you and try to scare you by asking for your Penn card.”
- “In the past, after peaceful protests, Penn cards were taken and there was no punishment. Fossil Free Penn’s 2022 encampment ?no punishment. Sit in a couple years ago?punishment was to write an essay on civil disobedience.”
Ensure there is a line of communication that goes directly to those organizing.
- FD says to “have some level of accountability – Who can people reach out to with questions or concerns?”
- CQ says to “be transparent. You want your direct action to be peaceful. As an organizer, you will take at least some blame if someone gets hurt or something goes awry.”
FD says to lean on your community members.
- “If you can, provide poster making supplies, snacks, water, etc.”
- Remind folks to bring their own if you can’t supply these items.
- “Reach out for support if you need it! Friends, similarly aligned organizations, staff at the cultural centers, etc. are usually willing to help.”
Choose a type of protest that is most fitting for your capacity and goals.
- Advice based on recent history:
- “Throughout the last several decades, the biggest institutional changes have been brought about by sit-ins at College Hall, which are disruptive and visible enough that they command more attention than, say, an email,” says WP.
- “Penn, unfortunately, does not have a strong protest culture. Be aware of the reality of staging direct actions on this campus. Almost always, students choose class over protests, even if they are truly aligned with the cause. This is not a reflection of your efforts or the validity of your issue. Have patience and creativity in finding new ways to have an impact in an institution that trains its students against that,” says CQ.
- Email campaigns/online blasts (advice from KM):
- “Always have a prompt.”
- “Make it very easy for people to participate.”
- “Email campaigns to people that are used to getting heat can often not lead to any results (ex. President, Provost, head of UPPD etc.) but if it is to a group/person who often times doesn’t get any heat, it can be really powerful.”
- Direct Action/Protests (in street, chanting, etc):
- KM says to prepare chants and scripts when necessary to come off as a strong united front.
- Disruption to university event (high profile speaker, auditorium, disrupted, faced potential disciplinary action) (advice from KM):
- “Be on the lookout for what events are happening that the power that be might be at, often you don’t need a huge group to disrupt a panel/talk, 4-5 people can be enough.”
- “Have a plan going in – some events it makes sense to disrupt for the sake of disrupting, other events it makes sense to go in disrupt it and make demands.”
- Encampment (ex. multiple days camping on College Green):
- See previous examples by Fossil Free Penn and Save the UC Townhomes!
Prepare for intervention from Penn.
FD encourages you to decide if you want to tell Penn or not. More than likely, they will find out anyway.
- “This largely depends on how aligned with the university your organization is. For example, the Castle protests told Penn’s open expression observers because the 7B relies on a relationship with the university. FFP’s weeklong camping occupation of College Green did not because their organization does not rely on institutional support.”
- In many cases Penn will show up regardless if they hear about your protest. Be prepared (more on that in later sections).
General reminders:
- Nobody who works for Penn is strictly on your side because they cannot be. Keep that in mind when you gauge what levels of support staff members can provide.
- “[Administrators] will try to act like they care about the issue or they are on your side but they are part of the institution and should only be viewed as such. They will try and humanize themselves and it’s all manipulative,” says GV.
- GV reminds us that “admin are cops, they are police, they are power, they are never on your side.”
- KM explains, “The university and its administrators will try to gaslight you, make you think that you’re overreacting by organizing, try to get you to water down your efforts. In most cases administrators and faculty are not your friends or comrades. At the end of the day a lot of them are loyal to the institution, not to their students or to any radical values. Faculty and administrators with true integrity are very very rare.”
- Penn administrators care about image and money. Play on that weakness.
- GV explains that “It’s in Penn’s best interest to look good and punishing students for peaceful protest is bad optics for them. So use your voice!”
Advice for dealing with administrators:
- TM says that when meeting with administrators, be concise and don’t let them evade your questions.
- “It is a push and pull in terms of how much you can safely get away with. The most important thing is to repeatedly encourage them to answer your questions without evasion. Becoming angry will often not get you very far because they will shut down, however, you can continue to ask them to point blank answer your yes or no question and then leave with at least some more information.”
- “Repeat action items to them and email follow ups so that they do not have an excuse for forgetting.”
Advice for dealing with open expression observers:
- TM explains that open expression observers are not necessarily against you but they are also not in full support.
- “They are more of a nuisance than anything else. Remember that they are still university staff, even when they say they are there for “both sides.” Keep up a polite face for appearances and decide as a group if you want to heed their warnings.”
- CQ suggests leaning on them to prioritize safety.
- “They are not against you; in fact, they can help support you in the event an outsider becomes aggressive. Don’t alienate the open expression observers; they want what you want: for everyone to stay safe.”
Advice for dealing with law enforcement:
- KM says to be prepared, and know that their presence does not necessitate confrontation.
- “Penn Police show up at every action. Anticipate that if it is a publicized action on campus, Penn police will be there.”
- “Know that the UPPD and Penn admin do check the IG pages of active campus organizing groups.”
The after: protest follow up
FD says to document everything so that future organizers do not have to start from scratch: “Knowledge gets lost a lot. Document your shit and make sure to make tldr/recap style things for future generations.”
Check in with organizers and highlight joy to combat burnout!
Penn Disorientation Guide 