In developing this draft document, we worked to engage with faculty, staff, and students to gather perspectives and foster dialogue. Our goal was to build on existing College policies to create a framework that ensures freedom of expression on our campus while also addressing issues of health and safety and ensuring continuity of our collective ability to fulfill the College’s mission and core operations. Existing policies, such as the College’s policy on academic freedom and the Bryn Mawr College Honor Code, are an important scaffold for this work.
As a community of scholars and learners, Bryn Mawr College is committed to the free expression of ideas and supports the use of peaceful protests and demonstrations (collectively, “demonstrations”) by community members as a form of collective expression. We expect each of our constituencies to encourage and teach ways to advocate to foster greater understanding, working through deep disagreement by modeling and utilizing civil debate, tolerance, and respectful discourse.
Free expression and free assembly, which are themselves intrinsic to our mission, must always be balanced with our responsibility to ensure the continuity of the College’s ability to fulfill its core educational mission and the College’s obligation to protect all community members from harassment and discrimination. Even as we support peaceful protests and demonstrations, all individuals must be able to participate in all College activities on campus without interference, coercion, or intimidation.
The College takes seriously its commitment to the physical safety and well-being of all its students, faculty, staff, and invited guests. This policy below reflects existing Bryn Mawr College policies and is intended to supplement these policies and bring greater clarity to standards regarding protests and demonstrations while also living in community.
This policy, informed by existing Bryn Mawr College policies (see below), will be adopted in the spirit of our institutional history of shared governance. The process of developing it included conversations with Students, Faculty, Staff, and the Board of Trustees. Each of us individually, and the College as a whole, is responsible to abide by all other College policies applicable to them, including but not limited to those regarding health and safety of people and property; those regarding non-discrimination and equality of opportunity, free of harassment; and all federal, state and local laws.
The administration is responsible for ensuring continuity of operations at the College, including the ability to fulfill our core mission. Relying on existing College policies as a scaffold, the Bryn Mawr administration will act commensurately to mitigate risks to community members or College property when actions taken by protestors impinge upon our ability to operate and/or are antithetical to our Mission.
Existing College Policies
