Dear members of the Hamline community:
Welcome back as we launch our 170th academic year. We are excited to be joined this fall by nearly 600 new undergraduate student members of our community, as well as a number of new faculty and staff. Graduate enrollment is up, as well, and we have the largest group of student-athletes on campus in at least a decade. The positive energy is palpable as I walk around campus.
We will continue our work to help every member of this community, both new and returning, feel a sense of belonging. Belonging to a community like ours brings a shared responsibility to foster and engage in respectful dialogue, to encourage and act with empathy, and to offer grace to those whose views differ from our own.
Let’s remind ourselves that, as a university community, Hamline values more speech, not less. In accordance with our Statement of Civility, we reject the silencing of others as antithetical to intellectual inquiry. We value dialogue, not monologue. Listening is as crucial a part of dialogue as talking, and we expect speakers to create ways for other people to speak. And, we expect intellectually responsible speech. Assertions need to be supported with evidence, and other speakers’ evidence needs to be considered.
We respect and value freedom of speech, and we have policies that are designed to allow all members of our community to feel safe. We can do both, but we need to distinguish between feeling unsafe and feeling uncomfortable. Learning is inherently uncomfortable; some of our fundamental worldviews can be disrupted as we learn new things. Violence and hatred make us feel genuinely unsafe, and neither will be tolerated on this campus. We have a Conduct Code and policies that we will enforce.
We are planning educational programs and community conversations to help us build our understanding of each other and our capacity to engage in productive dialogue across difference. We are enhancing our efforts to “get out the vote” for this fall’s national elections, reminding all members of our community of their responsibility to learn about the candidates and issues that will appear on the ballots and then exercise their civic responsibility to vote. Please watch for announcements about these programs and plan to engage; allow your voice to be heard in a productive way.
I look forward to seeing all of you back on campus and to the important work we will do together, as the Hamline community.
Best,
Kathy Murray
