Addressing Disruptive or Divisive Social and Political Events

Because a Stanford education includes preparing for a life of active citizenship, collectively witnessed or experienced events, such as acts of terrorism, mass protests, campus-wide controversies, or divisive political events (including elections), can particularly impact student learning and well-being. This page offers recommendations for preparing for the potential impact of such events, while helping students navigate consequences for their learning, belonging, and well-being.

ACT: Anticipate, Create space, and Tie to course learning

The ACT framework provides a structured way to support students across disciplines. The following recommendations are just starting points for thinking about supporting students through times of uncertainty. See also a more comprehensive version of "ACT to sustain learning through current events" for more ideas and recommended strategies.

Anticipate

It is helpful to prepare for potential disruptions before they occur and to also acknowledge and express a commitment to supporting students as events happen. For example:

• In the case of highly-anticipated scheduled events, such as elections, consider: 
  • that students and the broader Stanford community identify with a wide variety of political, ideological, and personal beliefs and backgrounds, and this should shape your communications and other actions
  • whether classes will be held (note that Democracy Day is an academic holiday at Stanford) and how you will acknowledge the event in-class or through asynchronous communication, either days or weeks in advance
  • how you will continue to promote course learning and support members of the course should national or regional turmoil directly or indirectly affect the students or members of the teaching team, especially in cases where election results remain in doubt after election day 
  • how you can align your conduct with Stanford guidance for the community regarding Political, Campaign and Lobbying Activities (Admin Guide 1.5.1).
• Regularly acknowledge during class and in written communications events that are important to students' identities, impact their safety and security, or call them to action.
• Regularly acknowledge that students might be struggling to focus on their work, that this is understandable, and that you want to help them succeed in your course. 
• Build learning options into your course design:
  • including chances to revise and resubmit
  • dropping the lowest grade on some assignments
  • adding review sessions, or
  • providing alternative modalities through which students can to complete work.
• Support Teaching or Course Assistants (TAs or CAs).
• Tend to your own well-being and seek support as needed.

Create space

Create space in your course for students to process their reactions to the event.   

• Build in optional and ungraded opportunities for students to free-write or journal on what they are thinking and feeling around the event, and holistically self-assess their well-being.
• Dedicate some of your virtual office hours, or schedule an additional one, for discussion of the event, and make that theme explicit if you are comfortable doing so and feel equipped to have these conversations. 
• Familiarize yourself with signs of student distress and steps you can take to help. If you don’t hear from students, contact Stanford staff who will follow up (links to form monitored by Dean of Students).
• Provide students with helpful resources about Vaden Well-Being at Stanford, community centers, and units offering student support. 

Create space for class discussion

Consider these ideas if you would like to create space for a class discussion.

• Introduce students to Stanford SPARQ’s LARA method, or assign the Are You Ready to Talk? Toolkit, and allow them to practice with each other on lower-stakes topics.
• Emphasize that the class discussions will not be recorded and remind students that they are not permitted to record class sessions.

Tie to course learning

If possible, connect events to course learning, whether through course topics, skills students are learning, or habits of thinking they are cultivating.

• Connect course content to surrounding issues made prominent by the event, as you feel disciplinarily and personally equipped to do so; for example, a recent history of geopolitics or methods and contestation of scientific claims.
• Connect skills students are learning in your course with skills relevant to navigating the event, such as creating predictive models or drafting compelling narratives.
• Connect habits of mind or affect students are developing in your course with those relevant to the event, such as developing empathy or seeking evidence for claims.
• Use the event as an example or case study, for example, of the rise of extremist groups or the effects of climate change. If this approach is taken, also ensure that:
  • The topic is within your disciplinary or teaching expertise 
  • You do not treat individual students as representatives of groups or ideologies 
  • You feel comfortable calling students into discussion and de-escalating tense moments using LARA or other facilitation methods
  • The anticipated learning benefits justify engaging potentially strong student emotions

Learn more

• See Visit ACT to sustain learning through current events for more details, strategies, and resources.
• Visit the Stanford Democracy Hub for events, resources, and information about democracy and constructive discourse.