At A Glance:
CFSA Open Inquiry Policy Recommendations to Cornell University
Article 1: University Policy
- Adopt the Chicago Statement in its entirety.
- Adopt the Kalven Committee Report, including a commitment that the University will refrain from participating in political activism and that viewpoint diversity will be facilitated through hiring practices, research support, and training.
- Affirm that words are not violence and violence is not speech.
- Reject the heckler’s veto. The University should not charge security fees to a student or organization based on the content of their expression or anticipated reaction to a guest. Administration should ensure that protests in response to speakers do not interfere with the ability of speakers to be heard and listeners to hear.
- Create and maintain an administrative structure that operates as a check on University policies or practices that infringe on speech or ideological diversity.
- Foster diversity of thought by encouraging admission or hiring from a wide array of economic, geographical, viewpoint, and cultural backgrounds.
Article 2: Students
- Mandate training on the importance of free speech and academic freedom on campus. Training should include instruction on how to engage in civil debate and constructive disagreement.
- Students should not be compelled to express opinions that they don’t hold.
- Promote viewpoint diversity in the student body by casting a wide net for potential applicants and encouraging applications from a variety of backgrounds.
- The University should forcefully protect students’ free speech rights inside and outside the classroom.
- Any limitations on student speech should comport with reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions consistent with federal and state law.
- Any student accused of any infraction should have due process. The accused student shall be provided confrontation of the accuser, cross-examination, presentation of witnesses or other evidence, and the presumption of innocence.
- Students should not be encouraged or supported in spying and reporting on each other.
- Student organizations should be able to choose their own leadership and tenets without interference from the University.
- DEI course requirements should be eliminated for all courses of study that don’t directly implicate it.
Article 3: Faculty
- Faculty should be evaluated based on their individual contribution to their own academic field and the Cornell community without reference to facility in the lexicon of critical studies.
- Faculty should not be compelled to express as their own opinions those they do not hold.
- Faculty speech and personal/academic writings, investigations, and research should be protected in public and private settings.
- Any faculty or staff accused of any infraction should have due process.
The accused faculty or staff shall be provided confrontation of the accuser, cross-examination, presentation of witnesses or other evidence, and the presumption of innocence.
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