To the Editor:
The recent op-ed by Tas Rahman ’26 calls for Brown and other universities in the United States to adopt policies of institutional neutrality rather than take principled stances on moral issues. There is no word to describe this position other than cowardly. Universities are critical sites of knowledge production in our society, and to argue that these institutions should remain silent on the pressing moral issues of our time — such as an ongoing genocide — is to argue that knowledge is somehow neutral. This ignores the fact that academic discourses are the context from which conditions of violence arise — a context which is undeniably shaped in significant part by universities. This op-ed essentially argues for a world in which our institutions of power and influence hide behind shields of "neutrality" (a false notion, as to be "neutral" in the face of oppression is to side with the oppressor) rather than acting as forces moving us towards a world characterized by justice. Such cowardice has no place in the future I imagine when I close my eyes.
Sincerely,
Garrett Brand ’26
