Earlier this month, Heterodox Academy’s new policy team sent its first small batch of letters to leadership at institutions of higher education, including those at the University of Pennsylvania, urging them to protect academic freedom by adopting a policy of institutional statement neutrality.

In our letter we told Penn’s Interim President, Provost, Faculty Senate and University Council:

“Adopting a policy of institutional statement neutrality—wherein a university or academic institution refrains from taking official positions on contested social, political, or moral issues that do not directly affect its core academic mission—prevents the institution from being seen as endorsing controversial ideological stances. This protects the freedom of inquiry and expression within the academic community by ensuring all members of the Penn community can freely research, teach, and discuss all sides of an issue without fear of ostracization and repercussions from the university itself.”

We are thrilled to report that yesterday, Penn’s Interim President J. Larry Jameson, agreed with our position and issued a statement on Upholding Academic Independence declaring that:

“Going forward, the University of Pennsylvania will refrain from institutional statements made in response to local and world events except for those which have direct and significant bearing on University functions. The University will issue messages on local or world events rarely, and only when those events lie within our operational remit.”

Penn joins Washington State University and Simon Fraser University this week in adopting 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.