Excerpts From Brinkley Letter: December 6
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Dear President Bollinger,
As you know, several weeks ago you asked me to look into the controversy that has arisen around claims by students and faculty of threats to academic freedom and civil discourse on campus. We agreed then that these claims were serious enough to require our attention, and both you and I have spent a considerable portion of our time in recent weeks trying to understand what has happened and how we should respond.
In the course of these efforts, I have met (sometimes alone, sometimes with you) with many groups of students and faculty. We have talked together with students who have complaints about their classroom experiences, including many of those who appeared in the David Project film. I have spoken as well with the heads of the four undergraduate student councils and with other groups of students of very diverse views. We have both heard from and met with many individual students as well. In addition, I have met with several dozen members of the faculty individually, with members of the University Senate, with the Executive Committee of the Arts and Sciences, and with many department chairs. We have both received countless letters, e-mails, and other messages. I cannot claim that these inquiries have given me a complete and reliable picture of these controversial events, but I do believe I understand better than I did what our challenges are and how we might address them.
It is, I believe, important to begin by reaffirming our unequivocal support of the principles of academic freedom that are among the core values of the University and that must be the basis for our response to the present situation. We must continue to protect the right of all members of the University community to express their views on any issue, no matter how controversial, without fear of reprisal. We must affirm again the right of faculty to teach as they wish and to express their views freely in the classroom as long as they do so with academic integrity and in an atmosphere of tolerance and civility.
We have heard claims in recent weeks that some members of the faculty may have violated their responsibility to treat students with tolerance and respect in the classroom. Those claims are extremely troubling, since the well-being of our students and their ability to learn in an environment of civility and trust is one of the University’s most important missions. We need, therefore, to determine if these claims are true, and, if they are, to take steps to address the problem.
Let me summarize, then, the steps I think we need to take in response to the various claims before us and the broader controversy that surrounds them.
Grievance Procedures:
Many of us began our consideration of these claims believing that our existing grievance procedures could adequately resolve the questions before us. But those procedures have not proved adequate to this task, for several reasons. First, it is clear to me that the procedures we have are not well enough understood, either by the students who might wish to file complaints or by the administrators and faculty who might receive them. The result is that students sometimes make complaints to administrators who have no authority to deal with the issues, and those administrators, unable to address the problems themselves, have not known where to send students for help. Much of the frustration that many students feel is, I believe, a result not just of their reaction to experiences in the classroom, but also of their feeling that there is nowhere to go to express their concerns. I believe as well that our existing grievance procedures, even if they were better understood, are not sufficiently robust to deal effectively with controversies of this kind.
My first recommendation, therefore, is that all schools look carefully at their existing grievance procedures (as Arts and Sciences is already doing) and that they make whatever changes may be necessary to allow them to deal effectively with unusual challenges such as those we now face. Identifying the necessary changes should entail consultation with students and faculty, who are the users of and participants in these procedures. I also recommend that schools make a major effort to educate students, faculty, and administrators on what the procedures are and how they can be used, so that in the future students with grievances will feel that they have a place where they can express them.
Evaluating the Current Controversy:
Given the inadequacy of our grievance procedures, I believe it is important not only that we work to strengthen them, but also that we move quickly to create a process capable of responding now to current complaints by students in a serious, fair, and comprehensive way. I recommend that the Vice President for Arts and Sciences convene an ad hoc committee, drawn from the faculty, to hear student complaints and, when appropriate, investigate them.
This committee will help us resolve some of our existing grievances while we await the formation of the permanent grievance processes that Arts and Sciences is committed to creating. The committee will hear all issues students and faculty bring before it, but its mandate will not include investigating anyone’s political or scholarly beliefs or any departments or curricula. …
Sincerely,
Alan Brinkley