The Proposed Protest Policy

Last fall, the Faculty Union wrote to the administration asking for modifications to the college’s “interim” protest policy. After stalling for months, President Bernhardt finally replied last week. According to the union’s summary of his reply, (1) the administration's unilaterally imposed protest policy will not change this year, despite previous promises; (2) the disciplinary actions begun and taken against students, staff, and faculty will not be suspended; (3) the administration will continue to control and repress demonstrations and expressions of free speech.

Given this hard-line refusal from the administration, we offer the following draft protest policy, which reflects a wide array of voices within the community and recognizes the freedoms to which all students, staff, and faculty should be entitled.

Demonstration Policy and Right to Protest:

The right to free expression, free speech, and public protest, which the U.S. Constitution lauds as the “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” is enshrined in Emerson College’s traditions and its character. Emerson will safeguard those precious freedoms and resist any external or internal restrictions and attacks on them.

Emerson College will protect its community members’ First Amendment rights to collective action and political expression. We will stand together to protect free expression within Emerson walls and on public walkways. We will protect our community against arrests, disciplinary measures, and professional or academic retaliation. Interruptions of classes and other operations of the college are a necessary democratic trade-off for the vital right to protest and will not be claimed as justification to suppress protests or discipline those involved. Emerson will not require permits for direct actions or impose undue burden on anyone who wishes to participate in direct action.

Expression:

Emerson will not impede its community members’ rights to free academic and political expression.* We recognize that any attempt at enforcing Institutional Neutrality at Emerson is not only impossible but contradicts Emerson’s tradition of leadership and engagement in public issues. It also actively condones systemic oppression. 

To uphold this standard, faculty, students, and staff will be able to book space for political events based on availability and hold events without prior approval of upper administration.

*Political positions that seek to control and discriminate against historically marginalized people will not be protected under this policy. Criticism of any government's or institution’s policies does not constitute hate speech. Political affiliations do not constitute protected classes.

Disciplinary Measures: Checks and Balances for Individuals and Organizations:

At this moment, Emerson’s disciplinary process is opaque and centralized, and those subject to this process are prohibited from discussing the charges against them or the content of their hearings. Moving forward, Emerson will be transparent with its disciplinary processes, making them consistent and open to community scrutiny. There will be no attempt to impose confidentiality in meetings between leadership and community members, unless sharing information disclosed could potentially harm someone vulnerable. 

In the event that the college seeks to discipline a community member for violating a policy, a notice of discipline will be issued no later than ten work days from the date of the incident. If the college fails to issue the notice, it will waive the right to discipline. No community members will be further disciplined for sharing information about their personal discipline process with others.

The Shared Governance Committee will run campus-wide elections to build an Appeals Committee consisting of members from the faculty, student body, and staff. Any member of the Emerson community who is found responsible for violating a policy will have a right to an appeal with the Shared Governance Appeals Committee. Members of the college administration may be asked to provide information but may not sit on the Appeals Committee.

Emerson will not invite law enforcement into our campus to suppress protest. Disruption is not violence.

The Shared Governance Committee will establish a process for community members to file complaints against ECPD officers who abuse their power and will remove officers who threaten the safety of our community.

Right to Organize:

The college has recently made a policy to prevent unaffiliated student groups from hosting events both on campus and off-campus. They are also forbidden to fund-raise. Moving forward, Emerson will not make policies that will limit students’ ability to organize.

Emerson will recognize that our community members are citizens who have collective control over their working, living, and learning conditions.

All informal student, faculty, and staff groups that are unaffiliated with the college may operate at their own discretion. The college will make no attempt to limit the ability of affiliated organizations and interest groups to make political statements.

The college will not require students to gain administrative approval for posting flyers on student bulletin boards.

No restrictions for political action, such as leafleting and tabling, will be placed on public sidewalks or in Boylston Place.

ECPD/Information Collection Transparency:

The Emerson College Police Department must have the trust of the Emerson community and operate in transparency.  Its activities should not be secret. As such, all nonroutine police activities must be entered on a log that is accessible to all student media and any member of the Emerson community. Each log entry will be identified with an incident report number and should include the date, time, and place, a description of the police activities and the cause of those activities, the names of officers involved, as well as any arrests, detentions, or warnings given out.

Any community member can access the police log on a hosted Emerson website. No undue burden will be placed on community members seeking access to additional ECPD records. Community members will not be asked to provide justification for their requests. Confidential information and the names of confidential informants can be redacted, but the names of officers involved cannot.

ECPD and its affiliates will not use surveillance information, including online surveillance, on activists, nor use “tap” data collected on students, faculty, or staff, except to investigate violence or significant theft or significant damage to property. All instances in which surveillance is used will be included in the police log.

Emerson will not collect and retain private information beyond what is operationally necessary and will be transparent about the information it collects and the parties with whom it shares that information, and it will provide documented reasoning. For easy access and readability, this information will be aggregated in a document that will detail all the information Emerson collects and/or shares by category and will be available on emerson.edu. Emerson will also alert members of our community whenever changes are made in our data collection and retention policies. Emerson and its third-party vendors will not sell student, staff, faculty, or alumni data. If Emerson is approached by law enforcement with a request to share private information, it will alert the community members involved immediately. 

True Crisis Response: No More Policing:

At the moment, ECPD is used as a crisis resource. Emerson’s Shared Governance Committee, elected representatives from affiliated, unaffiliated, and interest student organizations, student RA representatives, and democratically elected representatives of the student body will establish a new department within Student Life that is nondisciplinary, dealing specifically with crisis response, deescalation, and victim care. Trained and experienced professionals in social work, mental health services, and conflict resolution will be vetted and hired by, and have the ability to be recalled by, the community bodies above to address crisis situations in our community. This team will also work closely with the community on receiving feedback.

ECPD officers will remain unarmed.

These are the tenets informing the Protest and Discipline Policy. Emerson will:

• Resist external attacks on our constitutional rights in advance.

• Uphold basic democratic ideals and apply them to our community in shared governance.  

• Protect First Amendment rights of our community members, including those of journalists. 

• Uphold values of academic freedom and extend them beyond faculty.

• Recognize community members as citizens who have collective control over their working, living, and learning conditions.

• Build collective oversight to hold those in power accountable by creating an Appeals Committee composed of elected faculty, students, and staff to serve on a disciplinary appeals board.

• Refrain from disciplining faculty, staff, students, or alumni for participating in nonviolent protest. 

• Be transparent with its disciplinary processes so that they will be consistent and open to community scrutiny. 

• Refrain from inviting law enforcement into our campus to suppress protest. Disruption is not violence.  

• Stop using ECPD as a crisis resource. Emerson will establish a new department that deals specifically with crisis response within Student Life.

• Keep ECPD officers unarmed. 

• Enter all nonroutine police activities in a log that will be available to student media and any member of the Emerson community. 

• Refrain from collecting and retaining private information beyond what is operationally necessary.

• Be transparent about the information it collects and provide documented reasoning. 

• Reject institutional neutrality. 

If you would like to join our coalition and propose any changes to this policy, please use this form.