We, the undersigned, alongside the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), petition Tufts University’s Board of Trustees to adopt an official policy of institutional neutrality. The posture of institutional neutrality is best articulated by the University of Chicago’s Kalven Report, which declares that it is the role of the university to be “the home and sponsor of critics…[,] not itself the critic,” and restricts administrative statements on political and social issues in all but the rarest circumstances. Several prominent institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, Syracuse, and Purdue, have recently taken similar positions.
Following an academic year marked by protests, encampments, and difficult social and political conversations on many university campuses, it is timely to adopt policies that promote healthy discourse on campus and address the role a university’s voice should play in on-campus debates.
None of Tufts’ publicly-available university policies express a clear, binding commitment to neutrality on political and social issues. University administrations and academic units have released public statements suggesting a “single administrative position” on issues of the day that are unrelated to the mission or needs of the institution. Therefore, we urge the Board of Trustees to adopt an official policy of institutional neutrality.
In addition, we urge Tuft’s to consider revising several problematic speech codes and written policies regulating expression that is protected under First Amendment standards. To take one example, Tufts’ “Declaration on Freedom of Expression” ironically limits the free expression rights of students and faculty by requiring them to abide by certain “community values,” which limits their free expression “in ways that respect the human dignity of others. ” Although this reflects noble intentions, broad mandates of “respect” and “civility” have long been used to restrict protected expression deemed objectionable by others and can be abused to restrict acts of public expression based on their content.
Instead, we implore Tufts to recommit to freedom of expression by modeling its policy on the “Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression” at the University of Chicago, better known as the “Chicago Statement. ” At the University of Chicago, as well as at the more than 100 institutions that have adopted their own versions of the Chicago Statement, this policy has led to significant improvements in the campus climate for free speech.
By codifying an official and binding position on institutional neutrality modeled on the Kalven Report, and by adopting an official university statement on free speech akin to the Chicago Statement, Tufts’ Board of Trustees can cultivate an environment that is most conducive to free expression, the plural exchange of ideas, and academic freedom.