We advocate for the rights of our students, staff and faculty to express our diversity of thought and inquiry without censorship or intimidation in our classrooms, on our campus, through social media, or elsewhere. In a time of many armed conflicts, including but not limited to the ongoing war between the Israeli government and Hamas, we cannot take for granted the significance of the peaceful exchange of opinions and ideas to the mission of our public university. We reaffirm our commitment to academic freedom and freedom of expression. 

We stand in solidarity with the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder’s Department of Ethnic Studies’ Statement for Peace, including their condemnation of antisemitism and Islamophobia in all forms. The rising incidents of harm and harassment toward Jewish, Muslim, and Arab, specifically Palestinian, peoples on campuses across our nation move us to reaffirm our rejection of anti-Arab, Islamophobic, antisemitic and other hate-based responses to any member of our campus community. We affirm the rights of all on our campus to make a statement, protest, teach, or otherwise engage in nonviolent action surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. Pressure, interference, and targeted harassment are threats to the very principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression.

Our leadership should make clear that we foster a campus community in which all feel heard and supported, even when we disagree. Given CU Boulder’s mission to support a diversity of perspectives, any petitions or statements that claim our campus has one voice on this conflict are false. The Colorado Creed upholds our commitment to respect differences. We also reaffirm the 2021 Faculty Council Resolution to protect Academic Freedom to Teach on Issues of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Religion, and Political Philosophy. The capacity to have meaningful exchanges across differences is part of the mission of a public university.

We call on the University administration at every level to assert its commitment, care, and protection for all those who are adding their voices to the larger conversation, or expressing grief or outrage–including departments and student groups. Calls for a cease fire, peace, and justice should not be conflated with hate speech. Nonviolent expressions of mourning for lives lost in Palestine and Israel should not be demonized or silenced. Criticism of the state of Israel should not be equated with antisemitism. Campus leadership should draw on our campus’ relevant expertise to guide meaningful exchanges outside our classrooms and support inevitable discussions inside our classrooms on this controversial but significant topic.

We also call on journalists to learn our public university’s policies of academic freedom when reporting on this topic. We are concerned that, for example, a local journalist did not take the time to interview anyone from the Department of Ethnic Studies before chastising their actions. We rely on journalists for researched and fair reporting.

In an age of global atrocities, the signatories below reaffirm the protection of all of our rights to raise our voices peacefully, passionately, and clearly in the classroom, in our research, and in our extramural, as well as intramural, speech on and off campus. 

Sincerely,

Signing Members of the University of Colorado Boulder Faculty and Staff