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This month has been a difficult one on college campuses across the country. At Wayne State, there have been many examples of students, faculty and staff passionately engaged in sharing their views in a civil and respectful manner. Nonetheless, some members of our community have shared with university leadership feelings of fear, grief and anger, as well as concern for their safety. We take these concerns seriously and are taking concrete steps to address them. I am writing to apprise you of our ongoing efforts to advance Wayne State as a safe, welcoming, inclusive campus for all, with a learning environment centered on discovery, mutual respect and civil discourse on campus. Toward this goal, campus safety is our first priority. Members of our community – primarily students – have reported that they feel unsafe. Much like the hatred directed at Asian Americans and members of the Black community that occurred during the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, Jewish, Arab American and Muslim students have reported incidents of religious hatred, antisemitism and Islamophobia. This is not acceptable. It comes during a week when FBI director Christopher Wray testified about historic levels of antisemitism and reported that more than 60% of religiously based hate crimes are directed at Jews, who make up 2.4% of the population. Nationally, there has been a three-fold increase in bias incidents against Muslims, prompting the federal government to develop a national strategy on Islamophobia. To be clear: Wayne State unequivocally opposes hatred in any form — including hatred on the basis of religion, race or national origin. To ensure the safety of our entire community, we have taken several steps:
A fuller list of support resources is available at the end of this message. Some of the complaints we have received regard speech and expression that many find offensive or can be defined as hate speech. While the U.S. Constitution prohibits us from censoring speech perceived as hateful or objectionable, behaviors that violate the law or our codes of conduct will not be tolerated, and action will be taken as lawfully permitted. To help further understanding, faculty members in Wayne State University’s Law School held a seminar yesterday about campus free speech and are planning another for the spring semester. We have also posted frequently asked questions about free speech on the Dean of Students Office website. We will keep you apprised of upcoming opportunities for learning or gathering in support of one another. Our stand is with students, our community and our mission. As a university and an inclusive place of learning for all, Wayne State has an obligation not to impose any particular viewpoint on our diverse community members. Our focus is on creating a learning environment characterized by safe and civil dialogue that enables voicing of the full range of views. As we work through these difficult days and weeks together, our university leadership wants to hear your concerns and suggestions for keeping our campus safe and welcoming. We continue to reach out to groups across our pluralistic campus, as well as members of the Jewish community and Arab-American communities, to better understand their views and concerns and address them whenever possible. A threat to the freedom and security of any group is a threat to all free peoples. It is also antithetical to our institutional values of Diversity and Inclusion, through which we “value all people and understand that their unique experiences, talents and perspectives make us a stronger organization and better people.” While we all hope for a peaceful and free world, we can best advance these hopes by modeling through our actions an inclusive learning environment characterized by civil dialogue. Thank you for all you do for our campus community. Sincerely,
Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D.
RESOURCESStudent resources
Faculty and staff resources
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