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December 5, 2024
+Institutional Neutrality

Michigan State University Heeds Call to Adopt Institutional Statement Neutrality

In a statement published yesterday, Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz announced the adoption of a policy calling for “university leaders to exercise thoughtful restraint regarding statements on local, state, national and international incidents and current events.” According to the letter, “the university, its colleges and its departments should refrain from issuing institutional statements unless incidents or current events threaten MSU’s core missions or directly impact the MSU community.” 

On its new Frequently Asked Questions page on “Thoughtful Restraint,” MSU explains:

As drafters of the University of Chicago’s influential Kalven Report recognized in 1967, full neutrality may be untenable or inadvisable when our university’s very purpose is threatened. Judiciously, institutional statements could be needed to uphold the university’s position as a mission- and values-driven organization, in addition to modeling for students that MSU lives what it teaches: using persuasion and reason to stand up for core beliefs.

By leaving room for institutional leaders to speak in defense of the institution’s mission, MSU’s policy is strikingly similar to Heterodox Academy’s model policy

MSU’s decision to adopt its policy on institutional statements comes on the heels of a coordinated campaign from Heterodox Academy to encourage universities to adopt these commitments. On October 22, our policy team wrote to President Guskiewicz, Provost Jeitschko and members of the Board of Trustees, asking them to adopt such a policy. Members of Heterodox Academy's MSU Campus Community formally and informally advocated for this outcome throughout the process.

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Explaining the rationale for the policy, Guskiewicz wrote: 

As drafters of the University of Chicago’s influential Kalven Report recognized in 1967, universities can best advance academic freedom by serving as forums for debates, not proponents within them.

We agree and applaud MSU for taking this important step.


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