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Dear ɫ����Ƶ Community,

The Policy Committee has been working to make improvements to the Speech, Dissent & Demonstration Policy, based on the College’s core, intersecting commitments to fostering free expression and community wellbeing. The committee is grateful for the many insightful and constructive comments we received from stakeholders, including faculty members, students, and staff. Your reflections and notes represent a true range of opinions on these important issues, consistent with the vibrant and diverse academic community that the policy seeks to uphold. 
 

As described more fully in this “Goals” document, the updates are designed to foreground free speech as an affirmative commitment and essential value at ɫ����Ƶ. They create a more positive framework for expressive activities, highlighting examples of permissible forms of expression and explaining: 

The College affirms the values of free speech and peaceable assembly and supports their exercise as integral to academic freedom and scholarly pursuits. The College’s role is not to shield community members from unpleasant or offensive ideas, but to allow such ideas to be tested through discussion and debate. The College seeks to promote students’ civic engagement and personal development, in a setting where they may be guided by faculty and administrators and by the community’s values. 

The updated policy also situates speech-related freedoms in the context of broader community responsibilities:

These freedoms are not absolute, but exist in a balance of important rights and interests. The College has an interest in promoting the safety and rights of all community members and ensuring a genuinely free academic environment, unhampered by disruptive, coercive, or intimidating conduct. The College also expects students, faculty members, staff, administrators, and trustees to respect the dignity of others, to uphold the functioning and safety of shared campus spaces, to permit the expression of differing opinions, and to foster intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and instruction, and free expression both on and off campus. As described in the Faculty Handbook, faculty are particularly charged with respecting the free inquiry of their students and associates and creating an atmosphere conducive to learning. 
 

In addition, the policy responds to many questions and requests for clarity that have come up in recent years—including through a recent faculty and student comment process. We have attempted to better organize the College’s expectations through clearer headings and definitions. (Again, these clarifications are spelled out in greater detail in the attached “Goals” document.) It is worth noting that much of the content has been moved or reorganized under new headings, which may create the impression of more changes than have actually been made, at first glance.

Finally, the updated policy clarifies that concealment of identity, to evade accountability while violating a College policy or law, is not permitted. The prior version included a requirement to provide identification upon a College official’s request, and this revision confirms that such requirements may not be avoided through concealment. Exceptions based on medical and religious reasons are detailed in the policy. Based on stakeholders’ suggestions, the Policy Committee has also added certain obligations on the part of College officials: that they should only make requests for identification “when there are reasonable grounds to believe that a person(s) has violated the policy”; and wherever possible, they will “make best efforts to alert demonstrators to violations of College policies or laws, before issuing an order of dispersal or taking disciplinary actions, so that demonstrators may adjust their behavior and continue their expressive activities.”
 

This policy, as revised, is effective today (August 18) and is posted on �����’s website. The Policy Committee plans to convene for a review period during this academic year to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of the Speech, Dissent & Demonstration Policy. We will invite faculty and student representatives to join the committee for this process and to recommend any further changes. Dean Leonard will also follow up with faculty separately about the rationale for how their comments were incorporated into the final version of the policy.

Thank you again for your input and commitment to ɫ����Ƶ,
 

The Policy Committee

Amos Himmelstein
Nora Kahn
Kathryn Leonard
Lindsay Nyquist
Vivian Santiago