My Colgate Magazine<\/em> columns are typically written many weeks, and sometimes months, before the magazine reaches the mailboxes and inboxes of Colgate alumni and friends. As a result, these columns ordinarily do not speak to current events. Conditions on the ground change too rapidly, and the circumstances surrounding such events can, and often do, shift. Any attempt to speak to the issue of the day will inevitably lead to essays that are dated. Or, simply, wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I note all of this because, as I write this column in late November, we are in a moment of great importance internationally. And, relatedly, we are coming through (or might still be very much in) a period in which people have asked universities to speak on current events \u2014 specifically to issue statements on the crisis in the Middle East. (Note: Colgate did<\/em> issue a statement, which can be found at colgate.edu\/middle-east-statement<\/a>.) This has also been a period in which what<\/em> a college or university says has been scrutinized at levels I have never before seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This all leads to the question: When should universities speak?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A small number of colleges and universities, as their official position, do not issue statements about current events. These institutions state that they will only speak on matters that directly impact the college itself. The University of Chicago is perhaps the most famous of the institutions that seek to hold this line. A small number of others have sought to follow this position. But even these colleges and universities have, in other ways, spoken about the Middle East, often by noting the impact that events there might have on students\u2019 well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such a position \u2014 to say nothing about events beyond the campus \u2014 would seem to be extremely tempting. It could be argued that issuing a formal statement on any matter might have a chilling effect on the very thing universities are designed to support: that is, free and open discourse and discovery on any and all matters in the pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, and clarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet, with the Middle East situation, and others, people wished \u2014 expected<\/em> \u2014 Colgate to issue some statement. Within days of the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, my inbox began receiving questions about the University\u2019s position. There was an expectation that in matters of great national and international importance \u2014 and this was an important set of events \u2014 Colgate must stand for something. And, it follows, it must say<\/em> something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the days that followed, after our original statement was sent to the campus, I received ever more calls for additional statements about the crisis \u2014 from all sides. I also received calls to make sure some ideas were not<\/em> expressed on the campus. These same tensions were rising on hundreds of other college campuses. In short, a crisis in the Middle East had become a crisis of expression on American campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, one comes to certain questions: When should universities speak? And how<\/em> should they speak? What happens when statements are issued? Are universities always neutral actors, places that simply provide a forum for any and all debates? Or are universities ethical actors, with positions derived from a set of commonly held values?<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have wrestled with many of these questions at Colgate. In 2017 I charged a large task force \u2014 composed of faculty members, trustees, students, and alumni \u2014 to consider issues of academic freedom and freedom of expression at Colgate. At the time, I could sense that there was no consensus \u2014 at Colgate or around the country \u2014 about how expression was to operate on a campus. In an era when it seems people are more divided than ever on many issues, could we come to a basic understanding of how speech should operate at Colgate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The task force met for more than a year. They considered the by-then famous statement on free expression that the University of Chicago had issued (and that had been endorsed by a number of universities). The task force, wisely, concluded that a simple endorsement of another university\u2019s statement would have little meaningful impact at Colgate. Surely we could create our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n