Institutional Statements and the Work of the University

Dear Members of the Colgate Community,

Earlier this semester I announced the formation of a task force charged to make recommendations regarding Colgate’s use of institutional voice — those moments when the University is called upon to issue statements about national or world events, typically through a message from me to the campus or to the alumni body.

In October, I received the task force’s report and I encourage you to read the report and the recommendations it offers. The group’s conclusions, which are thoughtful and wise, reflect the principles set forth in Colgate’s Mission Statement and Statement on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression.

The task force’s recommendations have now been endorsed by the Board of Trustees and the University’s faculty. The task force’s recommendations have also been discussed with both the Staff Affairs Council and the Student Government Association and met with their support.

This Task Force on Institutional Voice, led by Associate Professor Jenna Reinbold and composed of faculty members, trustees, and senior administrators, spent the past months reviewing previous Colgate statements regarding national and international events as well as those made by other universities and colleges. It considered recent and more distant statements about academic freedom and the nature of discourse and debate on the American campus.

As you will see in the report, the task force recommends that Colgate refrain from making formal institutional statements unless faced with circumstances “where the specific operations of the University are directly affected.”  More importantly, however, the task force recommends that the University respond to national and global events by promoting venues for people to come together to explore, question, and reflect upon such events. By centering these moments on dialogue, critical thinking, and the pursuit of knowledge, the report notes, Colgate will stay true to its mission and values.

I have accepted these recommendations and will consider them enduring guides when the University is faced with news of important national and international events.  

I will also consider these recommendations to be a forceful call to action. In challenging moments, when events in the nation or in the world are troubling or difficult we should recommit to our mission of education, research, and discourse.

In discussing these recommendations with Colgate community members I have heard concerns that to adopt them might imply that the University is an institution without values, or that Colgate will be silent in the face of important events in the world or uncaring when the events of the day affect members of this community. In fact, I think these recommendations call for something quite different: they propose that we tackle important issues with robustness and rigor, through debate and discussion. While there might be fewer formal statements coming from my office regarding events of the day, I trust that there will be a continuation of or even an increase in academic and intellectual work taking place in a community that cares and respects each of its members.

In the spirit of the Task Force report and its call to have the University engage fully in important issues of the day, Colgate will host a Presidential Speaker Series in the spring semester focused on the state of higher education in America. That series will be titled, “The University and the Public Good: The Role of the American College in Our Time.”

This Presidential Speaker Series will kick off with a live streamed event from New York City, where I will interview journalists Bret Stephens of the New York Times and Goldie Blumenstyk ’79, who recently retired from the Chronicle of Higher Education as their long-time senior writer. Additional events in this series will be held on campus throughout the semester, and more information about dates and speakers will be soon shared with the Colgate  community.

I look forward to these events and the conversations they are sure to encourage, and I thank the members of the Task Force on Institutional Voice for their guidance and support.

Respectfully,

Brian W. Casey
President