DeLand, FL - After more than a year of gathering input from students, faculty and staff, Stetson University adopts a statement supporting free expression on campus.
According to Stetson, throughout colleges all over the country, conversations about race, politics and other issues have been hot topics in the debate over free speech.
Seeing that public clashes between individuals became so frequent, Stetson University President Wendy B. Libby, Ph.D., created a task force to create a university statement affirming academic freedom and civil discourse in December of 2017.
Almost two years later, the Statement of Principles of Free Expression was presented in front of the Stetson Board of Trustees, who approved it unanimously.
"The statement puts us out in front of many other colleges and universities in both principle and practice," said Eric Kurlander, Ph.D., professor of history, who presented the statement to trustees with Sven Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology and Kevin Winchell, associate director of Stetson's Center for Community Engagement.
"If you've been following some of the national news, there are many campuses that have really struggled with navigating these challenging conversations about race or religion or politics or privilege," said Winchell. "Students often feel like they're silenced or marginalized because they don't know how to approach these challenging conversations, but they really want to talk about them because they care about them."
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order today that addresses free speech on college campuses.
Earlier this month, President Trump said that he would issue the executive order "requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars."
That statement came during the Conservative Political Action Conference.
"We greatly appreciate the work and time Eric, Sven and Kevin put into this, as well as Peter Lake and others at the College of Law," said Libby. "It's extremely important to the entire Stetson community, but it was certainly not easy, and the final statement is a reflection of the thoughtful discussions they've had."
