Dear CC Community,
At CC we believe a liberal arts education must be grounded in humanity, at its core and as its outcome.
In the last eight months, our community has experienced intense grief and anguish as we bear witness to devastating losses of Palestinian, Israeli, and other lives in Gaza, Palestine, and Israel. The suffering is unbearable, and the death toll continues to rise. According to the
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed and 78,827 injured in the Israel Defense Forces’ response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Over 1,400 Israelis have been killed in the same timeframe. We have a moral obligation to stand against this violence.
We acknowledge and feel the pain of all who have reached out to us and all who continue to advocate for the change necessary to end the suffering, famine, and continued death of civilians. We have been asked by students, staff, faculty, alumni, and parents to share our view on where we, the President and Interim President Elect, stand on genocide, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, and human rights violations. We condemn all these acts.
As we build our path forward as a community, we are thinking deeply about our responsibility as an institution of higher education. With no colleges or universities remaining in Gaza, we have considered how we might directly support students and faculty-scholars in the region. To center our academic mission in the face of this humanitarian crisis, we are partnering with the
Scholars-at-Risk program and the
University in Exile program to identify a displaced scholar who we could invite to CC as a visiting faculty member. We will also leverage our
HAVEN program for students who want to transfer to CC to complete their education.
Further, it is our duty to support students’ desires to meet with the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees to ensure our endowment investments align with CC’s values. The Board has agreed to follow the same process it followed to respond to requests to divest from fossil fuels. The full Board of Trustees will meet June 12-14 for its regular summer meeting. Members of the Board will meet with student representatives ahead of the June meeting to discuss next steps and explore revisions to our investment policy. Students may also have the opportunity to engage with Partners Capital as part of a special meeting arranged in partnership with the Investment Committee.
We also received requests to expunge the records of student protestors found to be in violation of our Freedom of Expression policy. Our
conduct procedures include a process for requesting expungement of records, and, in our conversations, we encouraged students to follow that process. As a college committed to preparing democratic citizens, we believe it is our responsibility to ensure we provide space for members of our community to express their views, even views that others may strongly oppose. Simultaneously, we have a duty to protect the learning environment of all our students, which is why we have a Freedom of Expression policy with time, place, and manner restrictions.
Our policies protect the rights of all, regardless of viewpoint, to engage in peaceful protest, and we recognize that existing policies need to be updated and clarified. A group of faculty and staff have been working for several months to revise our Freedom of Expression policy. Faculty are invited to collaborate with the Dean of Students office this summer as we revise our student conduct policies.
We will continue to investigate, immediately and thoroughly, all reports of harassment, discrimination, and community standards violations. These reporting processes are non-negotiable and vital to keeping our community safe.
Finally, we are committed to facilitating education and understanding across our community through guest speakers, campus events, and programming. Aligned with our academic core, we encourage the community to use our
Cultural Attractions Fund and
Antiracist Community Engagement (ACE) grants to bring speakers to campus. We are also happy to share that beginning in Fall 2024, our partnership with the
Institute for Citizens and Scholars, led by the Ombuds Office, will offer students learning opportunities that equip them with the essential skills to navigate complexities and engage across difference in an increasingly diverse and polarized society.
Together as a community, we will keep discussing who we are and who we want to be at CC. We can make a difference without violating the rights of others, and without excluding people based on their religion, place of origin, race, or ethnicity. We can affect change while staying true to our values.
Warmly,
L. Song Richardson
President
Manya Whitaker
Interim President-Elect
