Considering the Question of Institutional Neutrality
Preview:
Over the past few months, we have seen renewed, vigorous, and I believe fruitful debate across higher education about the role of colleges and universities in response to social, political, and economic issues and occurrences. The debate is multi-faceted and has a number of complexities but can roughly be summarized as follows.
For some, it is important that their institution take a position on such issues or occurrences either because they believe it has a mission-driven responsibility to do so — perhaps even a moral obligation to do so — or because they want to be reassured that the institution of which they are a part sees the world as they do (i.e., shares the same values and perspectives). The risk here is that not everyone shares precisely the same values or sees the world in the same way, and issuing statements can have the effect of telling people what to think instead of allowing them to think critically and decide on positions for themselves.
Originally published: February 1, 2024
Author: David Fithian
Position: President
Institution: Clark University
Published by: President's Office