Dear colleagues,
By joining the Kenyon community, each and every one of us has demonstrated our belief in the value of a liberal arts education, a Kenyon education. For a great many of us this belief runs very deep, shaping our work in the classroom, the community and activities across campus.
From this perspective, it is difficult to make sense of the targeted actions against higher education and other institutions committed to research, discovery and creative expression. Organizations that many of us have devoted our lives to or that have supported our scholarly and creative work are being reimagined, some dismantled. Freedom of expression, freedom of inquiry and academic freedom — the bedrock of higher education and our campus — are under threat in ways that many of us could not have fathomed.
The stakes are high, the consequences real. We must take seriously our legal obligations as we seek to protect our people, our educational mission and the financial health of our institution. None of this is easy, but the Kenyon community has demonstrated its ability to find a path forward in difficult times before, by recommitting ourselves to what matters most.
We will continue to live our values, even and especially when those values are challenged. In 2020, just before the pandemic, we rearticulated our mission and values. Together with the faculty’s resolution on freedom of expression and our civil rights policy, we have a set of institutional guideposts that has served us well even in the most uncertain and trying times. To be clear: Kenyon will continue to protect free expression and defend academic freedom, just as we will continue to prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. At Kenyon, we make space for all viewpoints, even those with which we may disagree.
We will continue to take care of one another, and especially the most vulnerable among us. Over the past three months, we have met with community members one-on-one and in small groups to understand how we can best support them in the face of very real challenges. This work will continue to be paramount — standing together makes us stronger.
We will stay informed and engaged. We are tracking every development closely, following the legal arguments and challenges, and assessing the potential impact on Kenyon — human, academic and financial. We regularly engage with our professional organizations — the American Council of Education, the Council of Independent Colleges, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the President’s Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, among others. And we have opened lines of communication with legislative leaders in Ohio and in Congress, inviting them to campus and visiting them in D.C.
Finally, we will do what we do best: educate. We will continue to welcome all viewpoints. We will listen carefully and read deeply. We will look critically at the evidence, consider the historical, political and cultural context, and push one another to develop our own informed views. As an institution, we will remain always open to making new and better decisions in the light of new and better evidence.
Education is the most powerful tool we have. We need only attend a student’s capstone performance or talk, listen to the nuanced questions posed at a CSAD conference, or watch as hundreds turn out to celebrate students’ achievements on Honors Day to know just how much it matters. During these last very full weeks of the semester, we encourage you to soak in as much evidence of our impact as you can. You’ll be reminded of why you chose to devote yourself to this work and this community.
When the value of higher education is being called into question, our best defense is to recommit ourselves to the critical work we do, and to challenge our own thinking each and every day. It is among the most important things we can do for democracy — and for a world beset by profound uncertainty and challenges.
Sincerely,
Julie Kornfeld
President
Jeff Bowman
Provost