The New Academic Quarter

Dear Members of the University Community,

It is truly a joy for me to be with you in this moment when we are embarking on a new journey of learning, discovery, and personal growth. The Autumn Quarter has a special energy and sense of possibility. The first arrivals and the returns of so many students to campus also reminds us all of the common purpose that brings us here.

Ours is a university community with a storied academic culture based on a singular devotion to the world of ideas, to the learning and creation of new knowledge, and to the joy that comes from doing this together. In classrooms and beyond, we will engage with ideas: some that have been explored for centuries, others radically new. All deserve to be subjected to reasoned questioning. Perhaps the most wonderful feature of this is the give and take with others as we strive to understand with both curiosity and rigor. By entering into open dialogue with each other, listening to others and sharing our own thoughts, we learn to reason better and we create a stronger community. Never hold back on expressing your ideas. But, approaching this with kindness, understanding, and humility can go a long way to making it all work.

Our individual and joint efforts in this kind of truth seeking are grounded in the essential principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression. Whether you are a student, instructor, post-doctoral researcher, administrator, staff or faculty member, truth seeking is your calling as a citizen of this place. 

Inevitably, truth seeking is a fraught quest; it does not come from imposed harmony. The importance of that quest must allow for the fullest extent of dialogue possible, even that which, in the words of the Chicago Principles, we find “unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.” I urge you to recognize the value brought to these dialogues by all human beings, whether they look and sound like you or not, whether they come from halfway across the world or from next door, or whether they practice a religion or culture similar or different to your own. None is lesser because of their background. 

Our community is rich in many voices and perspectives born of myriad individual journeys and experiences. The fact that this diversity of viewpoint and experience and the ideas they inform converge at this place at this moment in history will unlock your innate abilities to imagine new and better ways, if you allow it. Whether you are new to our community or have been here for years, reading and rereading the Chicago Principles and the Chicago Canon is as good a way to start a new academic year as I can think of. Together, these provide a blueprint for how to best engage in considered participation in a community dedicated to upholding free expression—and the standards required to maintain such an environment. 

While constructive dialogue is the gold standard to strive toward, speech should never be chilled. Actions that chill the speech or learning of others are out of bounds, and the University’s academic and administrative leadership is obliged to act to protect the community from such actions. Such chilling actions can include disrupting the speech or expression of others, disrupting the ability of classes and events to proceed, and other efforts intended to impose rather than propose a viewpoint for others. Acts of discrimination and harassment are inimical to our values and purposes, and we will defend our community against such actions.

In the coming days and weeks, you will hear from leaders across the University about the many specifics about how we both enable the exercise of free expression and how we defend it. Above all, I urge you to see this quarter and this academic year as one that calls to all of us as a time for renewal and learning and dialogue. I welcome you all as citizens of this great university community, and I look forward to participating with you in this journey. 

Sincerely,

Paul

------

Paul Alivisatos

President