On behalf of the standing faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee resolves to endorse the following Statement on Academic Freedom and Open Expression.

We, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (SEC), recognize that our university has at its heart a commitment to teaching, learning, and research. We are responsible to one another as a community, to the ethics of the academy, and to the advancement of knowledge.

As faculty we regularly engage with our intellectual opponents, even adversaries. We listen to them. We read books and articles with which we disagree. We examine evidence and data that contradict our assumptions, our beliefs, our previous work. We answer questions, we discover, and we aspire to learn and to change.

We are people of diverse voices and experiences. These enrich our collective understanding and stimulate intellectual growth through principled debate. We understand that open and respectful exchange of ideas and perspectives is essential to the pursuit of learning, knowledge, and truth among all members of our university community.

We inevitably hold conflicting views. We seek to present them honestly and discuss them fearlessly. Our ethic requires us to attend not only to arguments and facts but also to the divergent ideals and values held by our colleagues and students. We understand that dialogue across differences is an abiding component of academic and community life. We not only tolerate difference and disagreement but also appreciate them and put them to work for learning and for our entire community. When we fail to do this, we betray our academic ethic and ourselves. At the same time, we are committed to maintaining the welfare and dignity of others as we confront these differences.

 Our university opens its gates to people from every place, embraces people from all faiths and none. Our university champions the fierce independence of academic inquiry and freedom of expression among faculty, students, and other members of the scholarly community. It is through the courageous defense of these values that our university drives inquiry, cultivates knowledge, shares learning, and contributes to the common good.

Accordingly, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania affirms its commitment to academic freedom and open expression. Under its authority in Sections 2 and 9 of the Rules of the Faculty Senate, we:

• Affirm that academic freedom remains a bedrock principle of the University of Pennsylvania. Academic freedom enables teaching, research, and discourse to take place in our community free from coercion or retaliation.
• Affirm that all members of the University of Pennsylvania community have rights to open expression. These include free speech and candid discussion about the most controversial issues of our time, recognizing that such debates are often difficult, and that progress depends on the courage to honor opposing views.
• Affirm our commitment to pursuing academic excellence, encouraging all faculty, students, and staff to engage in scholarly endeavors with vigor and integrity, and upholding the highest standards of academic inquiry.
• Affirm our commitment to the central role of the faculty in the shared governance of the University of Pennsylvania.
• Commit to building and preserving an academic environment where all can learn free from interference, threats, or coercion.
• Reject all efforts to interfere with academic freedom, the free expression of ideas, the exchange of views, and the pursuit of intellectual inquiry.
• Affirm that open expression is not limitless, and that speech must not become a weapon used to harass, threaten, or intimidate others in our community.
• Embrace free inquiry and the mission of the University, and resolve to continue efforts to combat prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance.

Endorsed: Select Subcommittee of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee [January 12, 2024]

Revised and Endorsed: Faculty Senate Executive Committee [January 24, 2024]