Thank you to all who attended last week’s Community Conversation! It was a great exchange of thoughts, perspectives and experiences from our panelists (Professor David Schultz and Anne Barry) to our participants!
The sentiment of how we maintain a campus environment that feels safe and is ready for diverse viewpoints was consistent. From the upcoming election to the Gaza war, today’s climate of increasing polarization poses new challenges for balancing academic freedom, free expression, and DEI initiatives. Fortunately, we are not alone.
To support our efforts, I am sharing two resources that provide actionable steps for our campus. The first guide, Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap for Student Affairs, offers strategies to incorporate free expression in aspects of student life while ensuring a respectful and inclusive environment. It highlights the importance of preparing students for civic discourse and offers guidance on navigating potential campus controversies.
The second guide, Campus Free Expression: A New Roadmap for Faculty, addresses the specific challenges faced by educators, including how to foster a classroom atmosphere that promotes robust debate while also supporting students’ diverse perspectives.
Some questions I found myself reflecting on as I reviewed these reports are:
- How can we create spaces where students feel safe expressing their opinions while also challenging them to engage with differing viewpoints?
- How do we fulfill our role of promoting open and critical inquiry without feeling stifled or vulnerable when conversations engage challenging topics?
- How do we balance free expression (and its limits) with our commitment to a safe environment for diverse populations, especially in times of political tension?
If you would like to see versions of this roadmap made for Trustees, Presidents and Administrators, those can be found here. I encourage you to review these resources and think about how they might shape the 3 P's (policies, processes, practices) on our own campus.
Yours in community and with many thanks,
Dr. David Everett
