Since the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) launched its national campaign to encourage colleges and universities to adopt policies of institutional neutrality, many institutions across the country have done so. Cornell University is the latest school to take notable steps toward this goal.
On October 8, 2025, Cornell’s Presidential Task Force on Institutional Voice distributed a report to the campus community outlining a policy of institutional neutrality. ACTA believes the recommendations in this report provide critical support for free expression and diversity of thought at Cornell. We have written to the university expressing our hope that President Michael Kotlikoff and the Cornell Board of Trustees will accept them. We commend these excellent steps forward and recommend that the Task Force further tighten the language of its recommendations to ensure that the policy will not suffer erosion in the future.
Institutional neutrality is the idea that university leaders should not speak on behalf of their institution regarding the political and social issues of the day unless those issues directly affect the university’s mission or arise during the course of its regular operations. Such a policy protects academic freedom and allows a diversity of views to be expressed. The Cornell task force agrees. It clearly and repeatedly explains how its recommendations for the appropriate use of Cornell’s institutional voice will strengthen freedom of expression and viewpoint diversity for students, faculty, and staff on campus.
The report does an excellent job of describing how its recommendations on institutional voice apply not only to the president and provost, but also to college leadership, academic departments, and other units. It identifies distinct issues each of these units must consider when deciding whether to use the institutional voice. Particularly at the departmental level, it is encouraging to see interest in avoiding “imposing a majoritarian perspective that may inadvertently suppress dissenting views.”
Universities interested in adopting or revising policies of institutional neutrality should consider this task force’s report a valuable resource and visit ACTA’s institutional neutrality website for more information.
Higher education leaders, alumni, and journalists joined ACTA on October 22 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, for a special program on leading a university in a time of turmoil. The event featured an address by Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and a conversation between Chancellor Diermeier and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus […]
On April 11, 2025, the George Washington University (GW) Faculty Senate will vote on “A Resolution Regarding Institutional Neutrality.” The resolution reaffirms the university’s commitment to academic freedom, explains that institutional statements on political issues are not “the collective view of the GW Faculty,” and encourages the administration and board of trustees to treat “all members of the community with respect.”
Senate Bill 1 requires that all Ohio institutions of higher education adopt a policy of institutional neutrality and that presidents and boards of trustees at all of Ohio’s public institutions issue strong public statements committing their universities to the principles of free and open inquiry, civil discourse, and fostering an environment of intellectual diversity for all students and faculty.
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