Mission

We focus immediate, coordinated national action, across national organizations, on local infringements of faculty or student freedom; local violations of faculty or student governance; and local instances of university administration complicity with fascist policies, including genocide.

Every quarter, representatives of our national member organizations select, by vote, local cases for the coming three-month period. Following the vote, representatives report back to their respective organizations, and each organization devotes at least some meaningful resources to each of these cases during that period. Organizational responses to selected cases must be based in rapid action, and focused on the cases themselves rather than larger contexts.

“Local” means cases with a specific individual, institutional, or geographical marker, and which are otherwise unlikely to garner national attention. At least one case each quarter is chosen in support of radical and/or action-oriented voices in our larger movements.

“Action” means effects that cannot be easily ignored, dismissed, or put off by their intended targets. The Switchboard will suggest and help coordinate actions, but its primary purpose is not to prescribe or proscribe specific means beyond these general guidelines. Such actions may include focused public media and social media campaigns, mail and phone campaigns, speaker or screening events, vigils or protests, walkouts, boycotts, legislative pushes, the coordination of legal aid, and more.

Switchboard may also serve as a neutral forum for the coordination of actions and campaigns with multiple organizational partners, hosting shared archives, documents, cross-organizational calendars, and planning resources.