Brown reinforces 'Public Statements Policy' after voting against divestment from Israel

In the wake of a vote against divesting from Israel, the Corporation of Brown University has reinforced that the institution will primarily refrain from contentious political issues.

After its vote against divestment, the Brown Corporation issued an Oct. 9 message to the university community in which it emphasized its commitment to the university’s official 2022 Public Statements Policy.

[RELATED: Brown launches investigation into anti-Israel activists after latest divestment protest]

”Brown’s Public Statements Policy is already clear that the University does not make institutional statements on social, political or policy matters unrelated to the University’s operations in advancing education, scholarship and discovery,” the corporation wrote. “Brown’s standards for divestment should be reviewed to ensure that they are aligned with this policy.”

The stated purpose of the Public Statements Policy is to “affirm the values and standards for issuing institutional Public Statements on local, regional, global or national events, activities or issues originating beyond Brown University, and to provide guidance for the Brown community regarding protocols when Schools, Academic Units or Administrative Units within the University have an interest in issuing School or Unit-level messages on such activities, issues or events.”

The policy also provides guidelines for university leaders to still offer their personal opinions on political matters, stating that, “Any member of the Brown community may express their views publicly on any matter of public interest in a Private Capacity as a private individual.”  

In recent years, various notable universities have adopted some form of institutional neutrality policies.

On Oct. 17, the board of regents for the University of Michigan voted in favor of institutional neutrality.

”This institution should start discussions about the consequential issues of our time, not end them,” Regent Mark Bernstein stated in a press release that day. “We must open the way for our individual faculty’s expertise, intelligence, scholarship and wisdom to inform our state and society in their own voice, free from institutional interference.”

[RELATED: 5 universities that adopted ‘institutional neutrality’ in 2024]

Ivy League institutions like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania have also embraced such policies in wake of ongoing protests concerning the Israel-Hamas war.

”The purpose of the university is to pursue truth,” the Harvard Institutional Voice Working Group wrote in a report to university leaders earlier this year. “In that pursuit, the university as an institution can never be neutral, because we believe in the value of seeking truth through open inquiry, debate, and weighing the evidence, as opposed to mere assertion or unjustified belief”