Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
In April, we issued a call for volunteers to create a Task Force on Speech and Inclusion. During the month of May, we selected a small task force composed of four students, four members of the faculty, and four members of the administrative staff.
The task force is charged with developing a set of recommendations to foster and grow our capacity to engage in open and productive debate about challenging issues. Freedom of speech is fundamental to our mission as a liberal arts college, and we realize its full potential only when all voices participate. The goal is to encourage more members of our community to join the debate and express their views.
After two meetings, the members of the task force have clarified and refined their charge, and have developed a set of questions that will guide their work this fall. In this first update to the Wellesley community, we are sharing the charge and discussion questions as well as the list of task force members.
In the fall, the task force plans to convene a series of listening sessions with campus constituencies to gather community input. We will provide more information about this in September, when we will encourage everyone to participate and share their views.
We would like to extend our thanks to all those who volunteered for the task force and especially to those who have agreed to serve. We deeply appreciate the community’s engagement in the important issues of speech and inclusion, and we look forward to many invigorating conversations in the months ahead.
Sincerely,
Paula A. Johnson
Andrew Shennan
