Re: Moyse: The Best Way To Create Brave Spaces
A recent article laid out a policy of institutional neutrality that the author believed should be adopted by the Dartmouth administration. This policy was defined as a campus where “administrators do not make explicitly political comments.”
I see a policy such as this to be a major issue for the individual rights of our administrators. They are people too, protected under the First Amendment. Administrators may hold beliefs on certain issues that are unpopular by a large sect of the population on campus, but they still have a right to speak out on issues as they see fit.
Additionally, calls for Dartmouth to not take a stance on contentious issues would be extremely damaging for the College. When a member of the Board of Trustees takes a stance on an issue, it is held to be the stance of the College. If an individual on campus disagrees with the Trustees, that is their right, but silencing the Trustees would be detrimental to their rights.
If one finds too great of an issue with institutional political stances, where they feel that personal beliefs are completely incompatible with attending Dartmouth, transferring is always an option. While this may sound harsh, 27,090 individuals wanted to attend Dartmouth in last year's application cycle but were rejected. Everyone chooses to be here, and institutional neutrality is too great of a threat to freedom of speech to be an actionable policy.
