This document summarizes efforts to engage students in activism and advocacy work. It discusses a case study of the University of Brighton MA in Information Studies program. A survey of students found that about two-thirds were already active in areas like read-ins, writing letters to MPs, and leafleting. However, some students felt that professional organizations like CILIP could do more to promote their advocacy and political work to attract more members and engagement from students. Overall, the document calls for building better communication strategies to connect students earlier to relevant events and advocacy efforts.

1. Can we play? Building Opportunities for Student Activism andEngagement and why it matters. Ka Ming Pang and Jo Norwood MA Information Studies Brighton University

2. We live in challenging times. LIS students have a vested interest in the profession. They needtake the opportunity to engage and be more active.

3. Advocacy and Engagement: University of Brighton MA Informations Studies: A case study.

4. Advocacy and Activism

5. Engagement

6. What has been done to engage the class

7. Class Survey on Activism and Engagement

8. Small data sample- not useful for formulating meaningful statisticsWriting questionnaires are hard, but ooh look written comments!

9. RESULTS!

10. No correlation between communication tools used, and generation, gender, part time, fulltime status. Frequency of usage varied from person to person.

12. Good for employability

14. “CILIP is supposed to join information workers together to have a collective voice, but I haven’t seen evidence of that. I don’t see organised political activity during the current crisis in our industry, or anything of use.”

15. Two thirds of students were active. Involved in read ins. Writing letters to MPs, joiningprotests, leafleting, passing on information.

16. Conclusions and Action Points

17. Building an effective communication strategy

18. CILIP needs to reach out to students. Connect earlier, and relate sessions to relevantevents. Promote their advocacy work better to those who are not CILIP members.

19. Politically activity needs to be fed back into the class.

20. Summary

21. Thanks for listening Ka Ming Pang (@AgentK23) Jo Norwood (@DreamingEntity)