CAP: Colby Administration's Email

A screenshot of President David Greene's email to the student body sent on 12:01 PM on April 30, 2024. Transcript below. Screenshot can be found here.

OFFICIAL NOTICE: Fostering Dialogue and Deliberative Processes

To: Faculty, Staff, Students
From: David A. Greene

Dear Colby Community,

Yesterday we received the attached unsigned document from a non-Colby email account, and since then excerpts have been posted on campus and on social media. Given that the authors have chosen to be anonymous while making demands and threatening action that could have a broader impact at Colby, we thought it best to share the entire document with our community and provide our views on this approach.

We are committed to fostering an environment that encourages dialogue and the free exchange of ideas to facilitate learning, discovery, and progress. Our community regularly engages in respectful conversations and navigates challenging discussions—and this has certainly been true as it pertains to the devastating conflict in Israel and Gaza. In a community like ours, where we live and learn together, it is essential that we stand behind our words and actions.

We would be pleased to meet with the authors as early as this week to engage in a serious discussion, but we have no intention of simply acquiescing to threats and arbitrary deadlines from an anonymous group. Complex issues deserve careful deliberation, honest discussion, and fact-finding. If the authors are interested in engaging in this work, know that we are as well. Thoughtful deliberation is a bedrock principle of our institution.

Other important principles are challenged in this document. First is the distributed model of decision-making and shared governance at Colby. The authors demand that the College, including its centers and institutes, hold events that are focused on bringing “Palestinian perspectives to campus.” While that might, in fact, be a laudable goal, it is one that needs to arise from well-reasoned and persuasive proposals to the directors and student advisory boards of those entities, not by edict.

Second is our steadfast commitment to academic freedom. The authors call for dismantling the study abroad portion of classes that take place in Israel and undertaking broader academic boycotts. We will neither engage in these blanket boycotts nor impinge on the academic freedom of our faculty in any department. Our faculty must be allowed to carry out their teaching and research in ways that best meet their stated and, in the case of courses, approved goals. That is not negotiable.

We recognize that many of the demands are drawn from other organizations and websites without the requisite knowledge of whether they pertain to Colby. For example, there is a call for divesting from certain stock holdings in the endowment. We have no direct holdings of those stocks in our endowment, a fact that would be apparent to anyone who chooses to ask and seeks to better understand complex investment structures.

We are encouraged by the authors’ statement condemning acts of antisemitism. However, as we have seen on many campuses, the claims of those rejecting antisemitism have often proven hollow as the hatred, ignorance, and bigotry of some of those same individuals have caused great harm. While we have no reason to question the authors’ sincerity, we will be unequivocal: any activities that engage in or support antisemitism or other forms of religious, racial, or ethnic targeting will be met swiftly and with the full force of our conduct proceedings. We have a strong and consistent record of sanctioning students whose conduct violates our values and rules regarding targeted hate and harassment, including multiple cases that have resulted in students’ suspension and expulsion. This in no way precludes or minimizes the protection we provide to members of this community to engage in peaceful protest and awareness raising as long as those events comport with our policies and do not interfere with the academic or operational activities of the College.

The crisis in Israel and Gaza, which is rapidly spreading to other regions, has had devastating consequences that are of great concern to us personally and to many members of this community. Colby’s role, as a center of teaching and scholarship, is to continue exploring those issues in rigorous, evidence-based ways. We can never shy away from that purpose, and we have seen no indication of that happening on our campus. If there are other productive ways the College can contribute to the understanding of these issues or effectuate positive change, we would, of course, welcome a conversation about those possibilities.

We hope to hear from the authors of the statement so we can move beyond veiled threats and engage with them in a serious deliberative process that aligns with our mission and values.

Sincerely,

David A. Greene
President

Margaret T. McFadden
Provost and Dean of Faculty

Gustavo Burkett
Dean of the College