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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Dear Colleagues,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">As we prepare to begin the new academic year, we find ourselves navigating national and international issues that have a profound and personal impact on many members of our university
community.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Free speech and academic freedom are cornerstone values of UC Riverside and the University of California system. Under the First Amendment and principles of academic freedom,
faculty members, individually and collectively, have the right to express their views. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">At the same time, it is important to remember that as faculty within a public university system, we have an obligation to ensure that our personal views are not mistaken for
the views of the university and that they do not misrepresent the views of other individuals within our community.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">With that in mind, I write to direct your attention to a systemwide policy recently approved by the Regents regarding public and discretionary statements by Academic Campus Units.
<a href="https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/4408.html">
<span lang="EN">Regents Policy 4408: Policy on Public and Discretionary Statements</span></a></span><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">.
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The policy followed discussions between the Regents and the systemwide Academic Senate during the 2023-24 academic year, as well as <a href="https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/rh-senate-divs-recs-for-dept-statements.pdf">recommendations</a> distributed
in 2022 by the UC Academic Council Chair from the University Committee on Academic Freedom.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The new policy distinguishes between “Public Statements” as “messages sent to</span>
<span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">University constituencies or the public regarding its curricular offerings, its traditional mission statements, or strategic plans; administrative activities, operations or resources; news announcing
University or campus activities, programs or initiatives; or news and events related to faculty research, teaching, and individual or collective scholarly endeavors;” and “Discretionary Statements” as messages “that are not part of the day-to-day, term-to-term
operations of the unit, and that comment on institutional, local, regional, global or national events, activities or issues.” </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The policy
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">requires: </span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0in" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">That all Public Statements (including Discretionary Statements) be consistent with applicable law and University policy;</span><o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">That Discretionary Statements be accompanied by a disclaimer expressly stating that the statement should not be taken as a position of the University,
or the campus, as a whole;</span><o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">That Academic Campus Units that intend to produce and disseminate Discretionary Statements develop and publish procedures that comply with the
rules outlined below; and</span><o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">That Discretionary Statements should not appear on the main homepage of a website of an academic Unit, and instead should be posted on a separate
page identified for such statements.</span><o:p></o:p></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The Policy applies only to Academic Campus Units and does not address statements made by individual university community members or groups of university community members. The
policy states: “The University affirms the rights of individual university members, and of groups of University members, to author and publish statements and circulate them in their own private networks or on an individual University community member’s page
on a unit’s website.” </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Please review the
<a href="https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/governance/policies/4408.html">
policy</a> and visit our website for a <a href="https://insideucr.ucr.edu/announcements/2024/09/13/frequently-asked-questions-regents-policy-public-and-discretionary">
related Q&A</a>. Colleges and departments should confer to determine if they wish to allow discretionary statements, and if so, establish protocols consistent with Regents Policy 4408. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Thank you for your work to ensure our core values of freedom of speech and inquiry are upheld within a broader university community that is respectful and inclusive.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Sincerely,</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Liz</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Elizabeth Watkins, PhD </span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">(she / her / hers)</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor</span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Professor of History</span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">University of California, Riverside</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">951.827.1129 | </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="mailto:Elizabeth.Watkins@UCR.edu" title="mailto:Elizabeth.Watkins@UCR.edu"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Elizabeth.Watkins@UCR.edu</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.ucr.edu/" title="http://www.ucr.edu/"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="235" height="71" style="width:2.45in;height:.7416in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.png@01DB0820.5A51D650" alt="Logo
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