Dartmouth committee to release advisory report for issuing official institutional statements
A Dartmouth College committee will soon release a new report for university programs, departments, and other entities to issue statements.
On Nov. 19, The Dartmouth reported that the Steering Committee of the General Faculty will provide the report at the beginning of next semester in order to help offer 'more concrete guidance' over statements.
A Dartmouth College committee will soon release a new report for university programs, departments, and other entities to issue statements.
On Nov. 19, The Dartmouth reported that the Steering Committee of the General Faculty will provide the report at the beginning of next semester in order to help offer “more concrete guidance” over statements.
“The report recommends new language for updates to the policy, but is not itself a draft of the policy,” Provost David Kotz wrote to The Dartmouth.
In 2022, the university adopted a policy that specifies that the “board of trustees, the president, the senior leadership group, and their designees are the only recognized institutional spokespeople for Dartmouth.”
”No other individual, group, or department has the authority to issue official institutional statements or speak on behalf of Dartmouth,” the policy continues. “Of course, Dartmouth community members are free to take positions as individuals, including, for example, as subject-matter experts. Such statements must be clearly made in an individual capacity and should include a disclaimer that community members are not speaking on behalf of Dartmouth.”
Department of History Chair Darrin McMahon told The Dartmouth that after seeing the report, he believes the document will offer “clarity” for departmental statements in addition to “upholding faculty’s right to free speech.”
Discussions over schools issuing official statements on political matters has only increased in recent years, with some prominent universities adopting institutional neutrality policies.
In October, the University of Michigan Board of Regents implemented such a stance after numerous campus protests concerning the Israel-Hamas war.
“This neutrality policy elevates individual faculty voices in honoring our indispensable mission,” Regent Mark Bernstein stated in a press release. “Institutional neutrality also eliminates the suppression of ideas in departments where faculty who seek promotion or retention — including lecturers — feel compelled to fall in line with an expressed institutional orthodoxy embraced by their superiors.”
On Oct. 30, Yale formally announced that it would also be implementing institutional neutrality. President Maurie McInnis noted at the time that doing so would “strengthen Yale’s ability to uphold and defend academic freedom and the academic enterprise.”