UPenn adopts official institutional neutrality following turbulent period of anti-Israel protests
‘It is not the role of the institution to render opinions—doing so risks suppressing the creativity and academic freedom of our faculty and students,’ UPenn’s president wrote.
‘By quieting Penn’s institutional voice, we hope to amplify the expertise and voices within,’ he continued.
The University of Pennsylvania will no longer officially comment as an institution on potentially hot button controversial topics, Interim President J. Larry Jameson recently announced.
The announcement, titled “The Words that Guide Us,” was made on Sept. 10 in an email to UPenn students and faculty. Jameson told the community that the school is “introducing two new institutional positions: a statement of University Values and a statement Upholding Academic Independence.”
The statement of University Values lists “excellence, freedom of inquiry and expression, and respect” as core UPenn values.
[RELATED: Liz Magill hired by Harvard Law School despite resignation over anti-Semitism controversy]
The statement Upholding Academic Independence declares that it is impossible for the school to comment on specific issues without seeming to disregard others: “Responding to one issue inevitably highlights issues and groups that receive no message—omissions that carry their own meanings, however inadvertent.”
“It is not the role of the institution to render opinions—doing so risks suppressing the creativity and academic freedom of our faculty and students,” the statement continues. UPenn’s commenting on certain events “risks suppressing the creativity and academic freedom of our faculty and students” and hurts “diversity of thought.”
As a result of the new policy, UPenn’s leaders will no longer officially comment on behalf of the university on “local and world events,” Jameson wrote in the email announcement. “By quieting Penn’s institutional voice, we hope to amplify the expertise and voices within.”
[RELATED: UPenn bans encampments after campus chaos]
The policy change comes following a turbulent period for UPenn that saw the school accused of letting an atmosphere of anti-Semitism grow at the school. The school experienced protests against the Jewish state by both faculty and students, including many arrests of disruptive protesters. This Thursday, anti-Israel demonstrators vandalized a Benjamin Franklin statue at the school, covering it in red paint.
Several other universities have also adopted stances of institutional neutrality, including Stanford, Purdue, and Harvard.
Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Pennsylvania for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
