Johns Hopkins Embracing Institutional Neutrality on Political Matters
“We—as university leaders and deans—have arrived at a strong commitment to make institutional statements only in the limited circumstances where an issue is clearly related to a direct, concrete, and demonstrable interest or function of the university”
This is a new trend that is being embraced at a handful of schools. Is it a good idea?
The College Fix reports:
Johns Hopkins to use ‘restraint’ with political statements
Johns Hopkins University became the latest campus to embrace institutional neutrality.
However, there is more work ahead to implement this, according to a higher education reform group.
“We—as university leaders and deans—have arrived at a strong commitment to make institutional statements only in the limited circumstances where an issue is clearly related to a direct, concrete, and demonstrable interest or function of the university,” the president, provost, and deans wrote in a statement.
The leaders of the private Maryland university pledged a “posture of restraint” in its announcement.
The statement, signed by university deans, President Ron Daniels, and Provost Ray Jayawardhana, said the university “must recognize that taking institutional positions can interfere with the university’s central commitment to free inquiry and obligation to foster a diversity of perspectives within our academic community.”
The leaders also wrote that university pronouncements can “unintentionally model for our students that the only, or best, avenue for engaging with issues is to make public statements, obscuring that there are more effective ways to make change in the world.”
Dean Christopher Celenza, and Dean Christopher Morphew did not respond to multiple requests for comment via email and phone on the implementation of the policy in the past month.
Provost Jayawardhana also did not respond to multiple emailed requests for comment.
The College Fix specifically asked if the school would refrain from commenting on issues like LGBT Pride Month, as it has done in the past.
Syracuse University posted in support of Pride Month just days after pledging institutional neutrality, as previously reported by The Fix. The Center for Diversity and Inclusion also did not respond to requests for comment.
Other schools, including the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, and Washington State University, have implemented institutional neutrality in recent weeks.
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Comments
I’ll believe it when they dismantle their center for gun control studies, founded and run with Bloomberg money.
It sounds like they are finally realizing that alienating an entire half of the country will lead to lower enrollments.
Yes. It’s all about the money. But I doubt they will change. They’ll just be more circumspect.
Circumspection is not a quality shared by the poseurs who have infiltrated and conquered Academia. They are too busy exercising the powers they have schemed for, and pretending otherwise won’t satisfy them for long at all.
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