Friends,

We have long supported Haverford community members' rights to expressive freedom and peaceful protest. Equally, we work to foster an environment in which every student, faculty, and staff member is able to learn, work, and live productively, unimpeded by fear or harassment.

This week’s sit-in in Founders Hall by students is a recent example of peaceful protest. Throughout, we have supported the organizing students’ right to peaceful protest, and students, staff, and faculty have simultaneously engaged in dialogue to identify areas of common ground centered on Haverford’s educational mission.

However, actions by the protesting students over the weekend and yesterday escalated the situation, materially impeding the abilities of fellow students to pursue their studies and the abilities of staff and faculty to conduct their work. Because of this, we convened a lengthy discussion last night with student writers and sent a subsequent email summarizing our discussion. In both the meeting and the email, we informed student organizers that they must discontinue actions that impede student learning and the functions of the College, which include the sit-in inside Founders Hall. Should organizing students decide not to proceed with this de-escalation, we will ask them to take accountability through restorative – not punitive – action toward rebuilding trust.

We expressed to the organizers last night our continuing interest in working together in a number of concrete ways – and ways yet to be imagined – all in the spirit of advancing peace and education, and students indicated their interest in that. This collaborative endeavor across our learning community will be based on restoring mutual trust consistent with Haverford’s educational mission.

Let's work together.

In community,

Wendy Raymond, president
John McKnight, dean of the College