President Wendy Raymond sent an email to Haverford students, faculty, and staff on the morning of April 12, addressing her upcoming appearance before the Committee on Education & Workforce. She wrote,
“The hearing presents an opportunity for me to discuss Haverford’s response to antisemitism and some of our learnings over the past year and a half. One action I plan to share is a review of certain campus policy frameworks. With counsel from the Ad Hoc Committee on Freedom of Expression, Learning, and Community, over the past year Senior Staff colleagues and I have been working to strengthen and clarify policies relating to campus climate. We are nearing the stage where we will share and seek community comment. In addition, I deeply appreciated the Ad Hoc Committee’s recommendation to develop a clearer articulation of Haverford’s core values. A draft of that document is also forthcoming for community comment.”
The Ad Hoc Committee on Freedom of Expression, Learning, and Community was announced on March 5, 2024, after a semester of student protest, a controversial ceasefire resolution presented at plenary, and tense discourse among members of the bi-co community.
President Raymond wrote in March, “during this academic year and in recent years, some members of our community have expressed concerns around the delicate balance between freedom of expression and our shared goal of building community. It is clear that some among us have long felt the weight of self-censorship, while others have expressed themselves in manners that contradict principles we hold dear: of seeing the light in every person and pursuing a life of continuing revelation in the context of a rigorous liberal arts education in which cycles of questioning, listening, discernment, and learning are paramount.”
Announced in that statement was a new anti-bias policy for the college, which “underscores a commitment to the free and open exchange of ideas, while making clear the distinction between protected speech, on the one hand, and discrimination, harassment, and/or bias on the other.”
The 16-person Ad Hoc Committee, composed of faculty, staff, students, and alumni, gave an interim report to the community in January of this year before its anticipated final report in June 2025. The report provided a draft for a proposed “Community Principles and Values of Haverford College” document, and outlined the committee’s review of Haverford’s policies and Honor Code, where they identified three sources of tension, formulated as questions:
1) How do we balance an approach to free speech that both protects expression and respects the need to ensure that a campus community is a conducive learning environment for all students, and work and research environment for faculty and staff?
2) How do we address the tension between a personal experience of discomfort (or even psychological or emotional “threat” or “harm”) by another’s expression with a belief in that person’s right to expression?
3) How do we address the possible tensions between personal identity, investments, and viewpoints with communal dynamics, expectations, and norms? How do we do so particularly on a college campus where students, faculty, and staff share different spaces and occupy different institutional positions?
Looking forward, the plan for Spring 2025 included Listening Sessions with members of the committee, a survey sent out to the community, and the creation of an anonymous feedback box posted to their website.
Raymond is set to be in Washington DC on May 7 for the hearing.
