An Update on Summer Work at Northwestern
Dear members of the Northwestern community,
I am excited to welcome all of you back to campus for a new academic year. I hope everyone is having a productive summer and getting some well-deserved rest.
Those who have been away from the Evanston campus will see many changes when you return, including renovations well underway at Donald P. Jacobs Center and Deering Library, construction of the new Cohen Lawn complex outside of Norris University Center and a new temporary football field, Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium.
I look forward to a year of what Northwestern does best: academic pursuits, research advancements and engaging in dialogue about the world’s most pressing issues.
To enable the environment where this is possible, we need to ensure every member of our community feels safe and supported. Activities that lead to intimidation and impede an environment where dialogue and education can flourish cannot occur again. Free expression and academic freedom are the lifeblood of our University, but they must not be used as an excuse for behavior that threatens the core of our mission — a search for enlightenment and knowledge.
There is no room on our campus for antisemitism; there is no room for Islamophobia; there is no room for racism and other forms of identity-based hate. Northwestern will not tolerate behavior or speech that harms members of our community.
Like many universities across the country, we have spent the summer reviewing our policies, adding to our community resources and developing educational opportunities for our community to discuss the conflict in the Middle East.
With the academic year already underway for some of our programs, and the rest starting soon, I’d like to take this opportunity to share some important work that we undertook over the summer:
Conduct Code and Policy Changes
We are updating our Student Code of Conduct and Demonstration Policy and developing a new Display Policy. These changes will be effective at the start of the academic year and will be provided to the University community in September.
Community Resources
We have expanded resources devoted to ensuring that all members of our community are safe and that the new and revised policies can be effectively enforced with due process. These include the following:
- An integration of antisemitism and Islamophobia into the work of our Institutional Diversity and Inclusion Office, including a new religious literacy program
- Investments in public safety personnel and infrastructure
- Additional staffing in the Office of Community Standards
- An expansion of efforts — including our new Center on Enlightened Disagreement — to enhance the community’s ability to engage in enlightened disagreement and difficult dialogues in constructive, respectful ways
Educational Opportunities
In line with our commitment to academic exploration, we also will be expanding the educational opportunities available to members of our community about antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of hate as well as the ongoing war in the Middle East. These include the following opportunities:
- Mandatory trainings on antisemitism and other forms of hate will be used in September at incoming student orientation and over the Fall Quarter for all returning students. Training also will be provided to staff and faculty.
- A set of lectures and panels on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism as well as the history and politics of the conflict in the Middle East.
The effort to ensure that antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of identity- or religious-based hate do not take root on our campus reflects our commitment to the values of diversity, inclusion and tolerance and is in no way in tension with them. Importantly, our values also include free expression and academic freedom.
As a private university, we are not mandated by law to value free expression; instead, we embrace the values of free expression because they are integral to our mission — the fearless pursuit of knowledge and the inculcation of critical thinking.[1] Ideas — even unpopular ones — must be protected, but the manner in which those ideas are expressed should be consistent with the particular and special needs of an academic community.[2]
It is my hope that through dialogue and an increased attentiveness to the way our words affect one another, we will make Northwestern a place where each of us — students, faculty and staff — can do our best work.
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[1] For those of you who want to delve into free expression as an academic value, I recommend two books: Keith Whittington titled “Speak Freely” (Princeton University Press, 2018) and Cass Sunstein titled “Campus Free Speech” (Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2024).
[2] Eli Finkel, “The Failings of the Chicago Principles When It Comes to Free Speech,” Chicago Tribune (June 23, 2024).