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A Message to the Goucher College Community on the Beginning of the War
March 20, 2003
Dear Goucher community members,
The first bombs have fallen in America’s new war with Iraq, and a turning point has been reached. The long months of discussion and debate about whether or not the country should go to war are over. Whether or not we agree with the decisions that have brought us to this point, we are at war. We must now turn our attention to what comes next, always holding in our thoughts and respecting in our actions the people whose lives are on the line as the conflict proceeds.
At Goucher College, what comes next will be an extension of what has come before. We will continue to discuss and debate the difficult issues at hand, bringing our full range of academic resources to bear on the discussion, drawing on the perspectives of all the people who make up our community, and listening carefully, critically, and respectfully to every person who rises to speak. These discussions will take place in class and outside of it, in formal town hall meetings and informal gatherings in the residence halls and campus cafés. In all of them, we will encourage everyone who has something to say to do so. And in all of them, we will make no restrictions or demands except those that guide all of our conversations on campus: that we respect all points of view, even those diametrically opposed to our own; that our responses to each other be guided by carefully directed reason rather than reflexive emotion; and that we hold every claim and position -- each other’s and our own -- to the most stringent critical evaluation based on the best factual evidence available.
Throughout this conflict, Goucher College will remain a safe haven in every sense of the term. Speaking literally, I can assure you that our Office of Safety and Security, working with local and national law enforcement and security agencies, has taken and will continue to take every precaution in ensuring that our campus remains protected from harm and ready to respond should an emergency arise. (We will, in the weeks ahead, elaborate a more formal emergency plan.) In a more figurative sense, what they are protecting -- what we all must strive tirelessly to protect in the coming days -- is the safe haven we have established here for honest, incisive discussion and free expression of the multifarious viewpoints we hold on what is happening in the world right now, and on what is to come.
We will not limit to our campus the discussions, inquiries, activities, and events we undertake. Instead, we will do what we can to extend our haven to include the communities around us, wherever we find ourselves -- in the neighborhood, around the nation, and across the globe. Over time, we will try to bring to our campus the best and brightest minds our world has to offer to talk about the ramifications of this war, from the historical and the political to the artistic and the personal, and we will invite all who want to participate in these discussions to join us, to listen, and to share their ideas, perspectives, and expertise. We will continue our efforts to reach out to the world through community service, international study, and other opportunities for off-campus scholarship and experience -- with increased caution and awareness of the security issues they entail, perhaps, but with no less openness to the things we may learn from them and the good we may do, both for ourselves and for the people we come in contact with.
Finally, we will continue to support and encourage our students, faculty, and staff in carrying forth a long tradition at Goucher of activism outside the formal boundaries of the college’s official programs, activities, and events. It is up to each of us individually to determine how we wish to participate, and whether or not we wish to take time out of class or work to do so; but I hope that we can all find the ways of expressing ourselves that are most true to our beliefs and most compatible with our own priorities, interests, and needs. In the short term, it will be up to individual faculty members and their classes to establish ground rules governing any variations from the usual procedures and requirements.
The days, weeks, months, and perhaps even the years, ahead will be trying. Of that there is little doubt. But in many ways, Goucher College is one of the best places one could hope to be in times like these. This is a community that balances respect, tolerance, and supportiveness with the most constructive kind of critical evaluation, and with unwavering vigilance toward the personal, academic, and social responsibilities we bear as its members. It is a place where you will find both heated debates about this conflict and warm expressions of unity in comforting those affected by it and working toward its resolution. It is a place where each of us can not only develop our own vision of what should come next now that this war has begun, but also begin working -- individually and with each other -- to realize that vision.
Although it is my personal wish that the circumstances that have led us to this point had played out differently, I am glad to be here at Goucher College, talking, working, and learning with all of you, as we move on from this difficult moment.
Sincerely,
Sanford J. Ungar
President