Editor’s note: The following letter was sent to Darnell Hunt, UCLA’s interim chancellor, on Aug. 9 on behalf of Bruin Alumni in Defense of Free Speech. A full list of individuals who have signed on to the letter is included at the end of the submission.

Dear Chancellor Hunt:

We at Bruin Alumni in Defense of Free Speech are writing to ask that UCLA adopt a commitment to institutional neutrality similar to the University of Chicago’s Kalven Report of 1967. We ourselves are not neutral in our individual political views and neither are students and faculty at UCLA. But for that very reason we urge the university itself to remain neutral. This will allow discourse to flourish on campus and allow students and faculty to engage in debates on contemporary issues, free from institutional pressure.

In recent years, colleges and universities have increasingly weighed in on social and political issues. This has led our institutions of higher education to become politicized and has created an untenable situation where they are expected to weigh in on all social and political issues.

Most critically, sharing institutional stances on these issues risks establishing an orthodox view on campus, chilling the speech of those who disagree. This threatens the pursuit of knowledge that higher education exists to facilitate.

As the Kalven Report argues, a policy of institutional neutrality is premised on the defining mission of the university: to pursue truth through “the discovery, improvement, and dissemination of knowledge.” To accomplish this mission, “a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures.”

In recent weeks, Harvard, Syracuse, Stanford and Purdue Universities have all adopted an institutional neutrality statement to protect free expression and viewpoint diversity on campus. Please take this important step and signal to students and faculty that UCLA is a place where all are welcome to share their views and where any idea can be debated without fear. Thank you for your consideration as we strive to make the educational experience at UCLA the best it can be.

Sincerely,

Jerald L. Mosley

Co-founder of Bruin Alumni in Defense of Free Speech

UCLA Alum ’82

Dominic Manser

Co-founder of Bruin Alumni in Defense of Free Speech

UCLA Alum 2014

 

In support:

Earl Altshuler

UCLA Alum ’72

Arlette Baljon

Parent of UCLA Alum; Professor, San Diego State University Dept. of Physics

John Bickle

UCLA Alum ’83; Professor, Mississippi State University Dept. of Philosophy and

Religion; Scientist-Educator, University of Mississippi Medical Center

Bette Billet

UCLA Alum ’66

Walter E. Block

Eminent Scholar and Professor, Loyola University New Orleans College of Business

Richard Brannin

UCLA Alum ’74

Pamela Bumerts

Laboratory Manager at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (retired)

Aaron A. Burke

Professor, UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures

Li Cai

Professor, UCLA School of Education and Information Studies and Dept. of Psychology

John Carlton

UCLA Alum ’79

Americo Cascella

UCLA Alum ’94

David Churchman

UCLA Alum ’72; Professor Emeritus, California State Dominguez Hills College of

Natural and Behavioral Sciences

John Coons

Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley School of Law

Stephen Cox

UCLA Alum ’76; Distinguished Professor Emeritus, UC San Diego Dept. of Literature

Sunnie Daniels

UCLA Alum ’96

Richard V. Eastin

Associate Professor Emeritus, USC Marshall School of Business

James E. Enstrom

UCLA Alum ’76; Research Professor, UCLA Dept. of Epidemiology (retired)

Peter M. Felker

Professor Emeritus, UCLA Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Charles Geshekter

UCLA Alum ’72; Professor Emeritus, CSU, Chico, Dept. of History

Kevin Gilligan

UCLA Alum ’90

Oleg Gleizer

Director of UCLA Olga Radko Endowed Math Circle

Stephen H. Haber

UCLA Alum ’85; Professor, Stanford University Depts. of Political Science, History and Economics

Daniel Hepler

Senior Lecturer, UC Riverside Writing Program

Roger Janeway

UCLA Alum ’94

Jon Jenkins

Parent of UCLA Alum

Jack Katz

Research Professor, UCLA Dept. of Sociology

Dean S. Kaufman

UCLA Alum ’66

Daniel B. Klein

Professor, George Mason University Department of Economics

Joel D. Kopple

Professor Emeritus, UCLA Dept. of Medicine

Mitchell Langbert

UCLA alum ’81; Associate Professor, Brooklyn College of CUNY School of Business (retired)

Michel L. Lapidus

Distinguished Professor, UC Riverside Dept. Mathematics

Tom Leeson

Visiting Assistant Professor 1993-1994, UCLA Department of Design

Geoffrey Marcy

UCLA Alum ’76; Professor Emeritus, UC Berkeley Dept. of Astronomy

James E. Moore

Professor Emeritus, USC Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Paul Nachman

Staff Scientist, TRW/Northrop Grumman, 1985-1989 and 1996-2005

Lee Ohanian

Distinguished Professor, UCLA Dept. of Economics

Joe Piechowski

UCLA Alum ’94

Kristofer Pister

Professor, UC Berkeley Dept. Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

J. Mark Ramseyer

Professor, Harvard Law School

Stephanie Reynolds

UCLA Alum ’93; Parent of UCLA Student

Gary W. Roemer

UCLA Alum ’99

J. Thomas Rosenthal

Professor Emeritus, UCLA School of Medicine

Gabriel Rossman

UCLA Alum ’99; Professor, UCLA Dept. of Sociology

Sam Roth

UCLA Alum 2021

Jerome Rotter

UCLA Alum ’73; Distinguished Professor, UCLA School of Medicine

Sherry Sanvictores

UCLA Alum 2002

Barry Schein

Professor, USC Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy

Allen W. Shafter

UCLA Alum ’83

David Shulman

UCLA Alum ’75; Visiting Scholar, UCLA Anderson School

Harvey A. Silverglate

Co-founder and current member of the Board of Directors of The Foundation for

Individual Rights and Expression

Desmond J. Smith

Professor, UCLA School of Medicine

Michael Wesley Suman

UCLA Alum ’92; Continuing Lecturer, UCLA Department of Communication

Demetri Terzopoulos

Distinguished Professor, UCLA Dept. of Computer Science

Frank P. Tomasulo

UCLA Alum ’86; Professor of Graduate Film Studies, National University

Daniel Treisman

Professor, UCLA Dept. of Political Science

Stanley W. Trimble

Professor Emeritus, UCLA Dept. of Geography

Eugene Volokh

UCLA Alum ’92; Distinguished Professor Emeritus, UCLA School of Law

Bob Waldorf

UCLA Alum ’62; Parent of UCLA Alum

Toby Waldorf

UCLA Alum ’80; Parent of UCLA Alum

Eugene Ward

UCLA Alum ’76

Randy O. Wayne

UCLA Alum ’79

Ted Weggeland

UCLA Alum ’81

Ralph D. Westfall

UCLA Alum ’66; Professor Emeritus, California Polytechnic University Pomona Dept.

of Computer Information Systems

Richard W. White, Jr.

Adjunct Faculty, UC School of Social Welfare 1978-1982

Erik Wolfers

Parent of UCLA Student

Ruicheng Yan

UCLA Alum 2016

Alyssa Ziman

UCLA Alum ’93; Professor, UCLA School of Medicine

Helene Ziman

UCLA Alum ’72

Benjamin M. Zuckerman

Professor Emeritus, UCLA Dept. of Physics & Astronomy