The aftermath of the October 7th attack on Israel made American universities, once again, the battleground for America’s cultural conflicts. A year later, with the war in Gaza still roiling on and the U.S. heading into a presidential election, Universities face the challenge of navigating student activism in an increasingly polarized environment. This report aims to equip university leaders with the foundational knowledge and best practices to rise to this challenge.

In this report, higher education administrators will find five key ingredients to successfully navigating campus protests, along with step-by-step blueprints for implementing these recommendations.

The recommendations are grounded in the report’s historical review of student activism. How has activism shaped American history? How is the pro-Palestinian movement similar to, and different from, other protest movements? What motivates student activists generally and pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students specifically? These and other questions are answered in the report.