Today, the University of Michigan Board of Regents voted to adopt institutional statement neutrality. The move follows engagement of the HxA Campus Community at University of Michigan openly calling for such a policy to “protect heterodox opinions and keep the University’s educational mission front and center.”

Heterodox Academy’s policy team has been involved with the pending move toward statement neutrality, submitting a letter on September 19th and a formal comment during the public comment period on October 15th.

In both communications we told university leaders:

Adopting a policy of institutional statement neutrality [...] protects the freedom of inquiry and expression within the academic community by ensuring all members of the University of Michigan community can freely research, teach, and discuss all sides of an issue without fear of ostracization and repercussions from the university itself.

We are happy to see another leading university formally adopt statement neutrality to protect open inquiry and free expression on campus. Following the board vote on October 17th, Regent Sarah Hubbard shared on X:

I am supporting this amendment because I believe in diversity of thought and freedom of expression. I hope this is the first step in a long process to update bylaws and procedures that will make our campus a place that is welcoming to all voices. And I can assure you this will not limit the individual voices of Regents and other individuals to speak their minds regarding issues both on and off campus. But we will not be speaking on behalf of the institution regarding social and political issues that are not related to our internal governance.

Michigan joins Northwestern University, Indiana University, and University of Virginia who all recently adopted institutional statement neutrality.

Learn more about institutional statement neutrality, our policy model, and the growing list of universities protecting open inquiry on campus on our website.