April 18, 2025: Faculty Motion Concerning Academic Freedom
Requesting journalist: Chloé Williams
Respondent name and position: Sarah Bolton, President
Does the college plan to join the task force proposed in the faculty motion's endorsed petition?
The College is already working through a number of national organizations that advocate in coordinated ways with congress, the presidential administration, and sometimes the courts, to educate about and stand up for higher education, for academic freedom, and for our students and faculty. (These include the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Presidents Alliance on Immigration and Higher Education, the American Council on Education, Independent Colleges of Washington, and others.) The petition proposes that a task force be pulled together across 60 institutions. As far as I know, the task force does not yet exist. If one were to be created, we might well join if it added to and went beyond the work we are already doing nationally.
How does the college plan to protect its academic freedoms in these uncertain times?
The College has a strong statement on academic freedom that was endorsed in November by unanimous votes of both the board of trustees and the faculty. This articulates our own commitments and makes clear that we stand by them, together. We do sometimes get requests from people inside or outside the college that would cross academic freedom (for example, by saying that we shouldn't have a particular class) and we always push back on those and hold the line to uphold academic freedom principles. If there were a government push against academic freedom on our campus, we would pull together campus leadership, including the leadership of the faculty and work with legal experts as well, to find the best ways to respond to the challenge and to uphold our rights and the rights of students and faculty to academic freedom.
Has the college received any updates on the government's Title VI investigations?
No, we have not received any.