Disorientation Guides

The summer is an excellent time to write a
Disorientation Guide (our archive).

Since the Sixties, possibly starting at Berkeley, student activists have been publishing Disorientation Guides - generally in the fall - to let incoming students know how they can get involved in movements for progressive social change at their school.

You can distribute the guides to every new student, or in smaller numbers.

When I was at Notre Dame, I edited/wrote a couple disorientation guides - generally distributing around a hundred of them at the Club Fair. I did regular paper, folded in half and stapled down the spine, with a cardboard stock cover. This works well for shorter booklets (like 16-24 pages). For larger print runs, like 1000+, you'd probably want to print them using a professional printer. Printing can be relatively cheap. You can do 1000 copies of a 24 page magazine for as little as $500 (which is a lot cheaper than photocopying, and easier than doing all the folding yourself!).

This also fits in with writing a history of student activism at your school as a shorter version of this will make for excellent disorientation guide material.

I liked to do research on the Trustees as their corporate ties are indicative of whose interests the university power structure cares about.