Universities Adopt Institutional Neutrality Policy to Promote Free Speech

The mission of universities is not only to educate students but also to be a forum for free inquiry and open discussion of ideas. However, as universities have increasingly taken stances on political and social issues through official statements, they have made discourse on these issues among students and faculty more difficult, since they allow students or faculty who may not agree with the university’s stance feel that they cannot voice their opinions freely. In fact, a December 2024 survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed found that a majority of college students do not want their universities to make statements on political events.

One approach some universities have taken to encourage free speech on their campuses is the principle of “institutional neutrality.” This means that they will refrain from making statements on controversial political and social issues that do not directly impact the university or its mission to allow for an environment where students and faculty feel comfortable discussing these issues.

While many of the universities are adopting this policy have only done so recently, the concept of institutional neutrality dates back to a report published by the Kalven Committee at the University of Chicago in 1967, the Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action, also referred to as the “Kalven Report.”

The report states, “The neutrality of the university as an institution arises then not from a lack of courage nor out of indifference and insensitivity. It arises out of respect for free inquiry and the obligation to cherish a diversity of viewpoints. And this neutrality as an institution has its complement in the fullest freedom for its faculty and students as individuals to participate in political action and social protest. It finds its complement, too, in the obligation of the university to provide a forum for the most searching and candid discussion of public issues.”

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has identified 29 universities and university systems that have committed to institutional neutrality. Most adopted an institutional neutrality policy in 2024 after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, including Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania, two universities whose presidents resigned at the beginning of 2024 after criticism of their response to the attack. Harvard University ranked last in 2024 and 2025.

Some states have also introduced or passed legislation urged their universities to adopt an institutional neutrality policy. The Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, and Utah state legislatures passed legislation urging or requiring their public universities to adopt an institutional neutrality policy, and similar legislation was recently introduced in Tennessee and New York.

Hopefully, this pledge by universities to remain neutral on political and social issues that do not directly affect the university will allow for necessary open dialogue on campus, especially at universities like Harvard that have struggled to create a campus culture that values free speech and civil discourse.

States looking for additional methods to improve free speech on their college campuses should look to ALEC’s publication, Essential Policy Solutions for 2025, for free speech policy solutions.