September 3, 2024

Dear William Paterson Community,

As we enter the homestretch of a contentious presidential election, as global conflicts continue to proliferate, and as people are exercising their First Amendment rights, it’s a good time to remind everyone about the University’s freedom of expression and responsible conduct policies for all of our students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors. Free and open expression is fundamental to our purpose as an academic community. Exposing ourselves to new ideas, engaging with opposing viewpoints, and responding in good faith are how we get at the truth and how we develop and strengthen our own positions. In short, it is how we learn from one another. Because it is a core value, freedom of expression is something that we as a University must actively encourage and vigorously defend. I am proud that William Paterson has a long tradition of supporting and defending free expression on our physical campus and, more recently, in the virtual realm of WP Online. 

Like all freedoms, it also comes with responsibilities, including mutual respect and a commitment to engaging civilly with those who hold differing positions and opinions. Balancing these rights and responsibilities is one of the toughest and most important tasks we have as members of an academic community in a democratic society and must, itself, be the subject of regular debate. However, some lines are clear. William Paterson has long recognized, for example, that the right of free expression does not include a right to engage in conduct that substantially disrupts University operations or endangers the safety of others 

It is also important to realize that, while it should never be unsafe, the pursuit of knowledge will inevitably be uncomfortable. You can’t get at the truth without confronting and processing a variety of conflicting opinions – even ones that you may find offensive. Whether or not we agree with a classmate, a faculty member, or a campus speaker, for example, it is our ability to listen to them that allows us to have the kind of difficult discussions which clarify our own thinking, as well as to strengthen and even change or modify our positions.

To illustrate the above, someone holding a sign or chanting a phrase that someone else finds offensive might make that person uncomfortable, but not unsafe. That same person holding a sign or chanting that same phrase and running toward another person, blocking their path, or banging on their office window, however, does create an unsafe environment, which is why this type of behavior will not be condoned.

Our University’s core values also include diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our diversity as a community is our greatest strength. This includes the wide array of ethnic, racial, religious, geographic origin, gender, and sexual identities of the William Paterson community, as well as the diverse opinions and viewpoints that we bring, which the University embraces by encouraging mutual understanding and celebration of our diversity. On virtually every college and university campus in our country, there is an inevitable tension in upholding what can be, at times, the conflicting values of freedom of expression, on the one hand, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, on the other. At William Paterson, we also recognize that while these values sometimes come into conflict, they can also be mutually supportive. Together, free expression and diversity of identity, experience, and opinion are what allow us to seek truth, and they empower our entire William Paterson community to flourish. 

I encourage you to read William Paterson’s full Freedom of Expression Policy, and I wish you all the best for a successful semester.