For many of us, the last few months have been difficult in deep and unexpected ways. The Israel-Hamas war has directly impacted many members of our community and exacerbated existing fissures in the GW community, the nation, and the world. On campus, a rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia has underscored the need for safer and more supportive campus environments. Amid these heightened tensions, the university’s commitment to academic freedom and the protection of free speech has been put to the test. These events have underscored the unique role we, as a university community, should play now and in other times of crisis and uncertainty.
For more than 200 years, GW has been guided by the foundational principles of free inquiry, intellectual rigor, open dialogue, honest debate, and mutual respect. Our enduring commitment to these core tenets has made our university one of the nation’s premier academic and research institutions, with a reputation for producing the world’s leaders and changemakers. And it provides a framework that allows us to engage on difficult topics with empathy and integrity.
Informed by those principles, GW is launching a plan that builds on lessons learned and lays the groundwork for future growth. Within each focus area below, we have shared initiatives, activities, and events intended to foster meaningful engagement across our community and support the important work already underway.
This plan, while comprehensive, should also be thought of as a starting point, and we look forward to sharing updates as it evolves. We want to build upon this foundation throughout the semester with participation from all of you. As we continue to have conversations with the GW community, we will expand and improve on these efforts. Together, we will define a community ethos equal to our aspirations and our history.
Read President Ellen M. Granberg and Provost Christopher Alan Bracey's full message to the community.
Fostering Productive Dialogue
A bedrock of premier universities and campus life is participating in productive dialogue while fostering understanding and empathy for one another. As we consider the teaching and research mission of our university and the importance of having difficult conversations to advance this mission, we are launching more programming and resources to help foster productive understanding, communication, and dialogue among members of our community.
As a leading institution of higher education, GW has always challenged our students, faculty, and staff to engage with the many critical and controversial issues facing society through free inquiry, intellectual rigor, open dialogue, and honest debate. However, that engagement has become more challenging in an era of extreme polarization and the weaponization of social media. The initiatives in this section will support our community in once again modeling productive, robust civil discussions across complex issues. These are difficult ideals to achieve, but it’s in such times when they are most critical.
- Educational Programming
The university is continuing to provide educational programming for all incoming students. First introduced as part of new student orientation at the start of the 2023-24 academic year, GW has a session that explores salient topics impacting the university community, including antisemitism, Islamophobia, and the challenges of navigating the politics of Israel/Palestine on campus. Students also learn about university policies and reporting options for bias, discrimination, and harassment.
This semester, the university will also host an educational series focused on navigating the complexities of university life in contested times. Topics include: communication in challenging times, navigating conflict, student conduct, restoration and repair. Sessions will be led by a variety of university offices and partners.
On February 21, The School of Media and Public Affairs' Sesno Series hosted an event entitled "Disagree Better: How Politicians, the Public and the Press Can Turn Down the Heat," featuring Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox. This session, presented in association with the Graduate School of Political Management, explored how to bring healthy conflict that leads to solutions back to politics and the public square.
- Free Speech Discussions and Resources
Recognizing the complexities of free speech in challenging or divisive times, we will undertake programming that is intended to foster greater understanding and informed discussions regarding our community rights and responsibilities in fostering free speech in our community environment.
As part of these efforts, GW Law organized a panel discussion on Feb. 12 with legal experts to explore the intersections of speech, community, and college campuses.
Additional information about this event and other free speech events will be announced in the coming days and weeks.
The university has also launched a resource page with information and FAQs regarding free speech at GW.
- Classroom Dialogue and Debate
Difficult and occasionally uncomfortable conversations are a hallmark of a rigorous academic environment, but our classrooms also must feel welcoming and inclusive to all. GW remains fully committed to supporting academic freedom for our students and faculty. However, we recognize the tension that exists between free expression and inclusivity and have heard feedback from our community about concerns or difficulties in navigating this space.
This semester, under the leadership of the Provost’s Office and Division for Student Affairs, the university will convene conversations among faculty, as well as students, about classroom discussions on difficult topics. This is the beginning of a process to learn more from faculty and students about their expectations of what it looks like to teach and learn in a world-class academic environment.
- Ninth Annual Diversity Summit
In February, the university hosted its 9th Annual Diversity Summit, led by the Office for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement. While planning for this year’s summit had been underway since summer 2023, global developments made the summit and the conversations convened uniquely relevant.
Organizers incorporated additional voices in the summit’s programming. Most notably, the university added an opening session presented by Interfaith America, an organization that emphasizes religious diversity and its benefits, on the "Promise of Pluralism."
Strengthening Partnership and Support
All members of our community deserve to be treated with respect within an environment that is safe and secure, even and especially when there is deep disagreement about important issues. Our university is strengthened by its many partnerships, which are grounded in a shared commitment to encouraging understanding and mutual respect. In difficult times, supporting and engaging with our stakeholders becomes even more important.
This section of the plan strengthens the resources available to those directly impacted by the Israel-Hamas war, antisemitism, and Islamophobia. It also outlines GW’s enhanced and renewed religious and interfaith programming more broadly. One of this section's most critical components focuses on enabling our students' direct engagement and feedback through student-organized and student-led commissions on antisemitism and Islamophobia. Over the course of the spring semester, the university will continue to grow these productive relationships with students and their families, faculty, staff, external groups, and others.
- Enhanced Religious Programming, Renewed Interfaith Programming
The university values the importance of religious life on campus and the ways in which our students, in particular, find meaning, community, and purpose in their faith. The coexistence of different faiths contributes to a vibrant campus, fosters greater understanding, and helps our students thrive in their academic and personal pursuits. To these aims, the university is redoubling its support of religion-focused initiatives. This semester, the Division for Student Affairs (DSA) will enhance this area of student life through collaboration with student organizations, campus partners, and external organizations.
This effort has included a Passover celebration, Eid celebration, and Iftars during Ramadan. We also will partner with the Washington National Cathedral on local programming that takes students from campus to the Cathedral.
In addition, this semester featured the post-pandemic return of GW’s annual Interfaith Dinner, part of Interfaith Week, co-sponsored by the President and the Office for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement (ODECE), which celebrates religious diversity and brings students together to reflect on their experiences. Throughout the spring, DSA will expand on its initiative to create unity and community, strengthen social bonds, and provide a forum for diverse students to connect and share perspectives by hosting additional community dinners and conversations. More information about the dinners is forthcoming and will be shared with our students.
ODECE will also continue its tradition of hosting Community Dinners in the Multicultural Student Services Center. As always, these dinners will be open to all students.
- Enhanced Counseling Support
Recognizing the burden an ongoing conflict can place on our affected community members, the university has recently enhanced its support for students who identify as Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, and Palestinian. Counseling and Psychological Services will continue to offer individual and group therapy options throughout the spring semester.
- Affinity Spaces
ODECE will also offer a variety of affinity spaces for members of the university community who have been impacted by the Israel-Hamas war, especially those with Jewish, Muslim, Palestinian, and Israeli identities. Students, faculty, or staff may contact [email protected] for more information on the spaces or to offer suggestions for additional spaces.
- Support for Individuals Experiencing Doxing
Acknowledging the impact that doxing has had on members of the university community in recent months, the university has made clear it finds such attempts to intimidate or threaten our students, faculty, and staff reprehensible. The university has shared guidance and third-party resources that may assist those who have been targeted by doxing.
- Partnering with Student Government Association Special Councils
Recently, the GW Student Government Association established two councils: the Council of Jewish and Israeli Student Experience and the Council of Palestinian and Muslim Student Experience. These councils will provide a student-centered, student-led voice to inform institutional initiatives and programs going forward. The university looks forward to our continued partnership with SGA President Arielle Geismar and other students in this important work.
Reviewing Policy and Procedures
Over the past few months, the tensions between a commitment to free speech and opposition to hate speech, and the relevant university policies and protocols governing these issues have been apparent on many university campuses. In an effort to harmonize, streamline, and clarify university guidelines, we have begun a review of university policies that pertain to speech, conduct, and reporting concerns.
GW’s policy framework must be comprehensive, consistent, and responsive to the dual imperatives of honoring free speech and creating an environment where all are free to learn. The past several months have revealed opportunities to balance these critical aspects of our university with greater consistency and transparency. A commitment to community and mutual respect alongside a robust environment of academic freedom, free expression, and freedom of speech should run through all GW policies. This section outlines plans to strengthen these elements of our university and community life.
- Speech and Conduct
The university is committed to equal access, free inquiry, free expression, academic freedom and the vigorous discussion and debate on which the advancement of its educational mission depends. The GW Student Code of Conduct maintains a central tenet that the freedom to teach and the freedom to learn are dependent upon appropriate opportunities and conditions in the classroom, on campus, and in all learning experiences in all modes. The code recognizes it is appropriate to share responsibility among all members of our community to secure and respect the general conditions conducive to the freedom to learn.
The events of the last semester revealed areas where the university’s policies and procedures were unclear or inconsistent. To address these questions, GW will begin a process to review relevant policies, including the Student Code of Conduct. In the coming months, we also will review policies and protocols around demonstrations, the disruption of university functions, and reasonable time, place, and manner guidance with respect to free speech activities. These review processes will proceed in a manner consistent with the faculty code and principles of shared governance.
- Safety and Reporting
In addition to the enhanced safety measures put in place last semester, the university maintains several key reporting mechanisms for members of the community to submit concerns regarding instances of bias, harassment, or discrimination.
These processes were designed to provide students and others with safe, secure avenues through which they can report and elevate their concerns. However, based on valuable community feedback, we understand that the lack of clarity around these processes and their purpose has contributed to concerns about the value and efficacy of reporting problems.
This semester, we will undertake a review of our reporting mechanisms to improve clarity, accessibility and usefulness for our students and others. In the interim, students, faculty and staff should continue utilizing the following mechanisms:
- GW’s Equal Opportunity, Nondiscrimination, Anti-Harassment and Non-Retaliation Policy, which broadly prohibits discrimination based on legally protected characteristics including, among other things, national origin, ethnicity, and religious identity.
- GW’s bias incident reporting service for students to seek informal resolution.
- GW’s Student Rights and Responsibilities (SRR) for a more formal process that could result in disciplinary action.
- Reporting options for faculty, staff, and students through the Equal Opportunity, Nondiscrimination, Anti-Harassment and Non-Retaliation Policy.
Resources
- Campus Resources
- Safety Resources
- Policies