Task force recommends restraint in use of institutional voice | Cornell Chronicle

"Official statements or other communications on the university's behalf, the Task Force on Institutional Voice concluded, may be appropriate concerning issues that relate directly to Cornell's core mission, values or functions, or to the mission of higher education broadly. Beyond that scope, the task force said, the individual voices of faculty, staff, students, alumni and families should "rise to the surface as they appropriately exercise their freedom to speak where they deem it necessary and appropriate.""

""It is not the place of the university or its leaders to speak about matters not germane to Cornell's mission," the task force wrote in its final report. "It is the responsibility of university leadership to act with prudence and restraint in navigating the link between institutional voice and university mission." President Michael I. Kotlikoff, Provost Kavita Bala and Provost for Medical Affairs Robert A. Harrington, together with the Cornell Board of Trustees, plan to implement the task force's recommended best practices."

Cornell will apply principles of institutional restraint when deciding whether and how the university issues public statements on social and political matters. Official university communications should be reserved for issues that directly relate to Cornell's core mission, values, functions, or the mission of higher education more broadly. Beyond those matters, individual faculty, staff, students, alumni and families are expected to exercise their freedom to speak. The task force emphasized that university leaders should not address issues not germane to Cornell's mission and must act with prudence and restraint when linking institutional voice to mission. University leadership and the Board of Trustees will implement the recommended best practices.

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