Marquette has officially adopted a new Mission-based Free Expression Statement, which was developed by a committee of faculty, staff and University Academic Senate representatives; UAS and University Staff Senate have endorsed the statement.
The statement reads, in part: “As an institution of higher education, particularly a Catholic, Jesuit university, Marquette genuinely needs community members to explore, discuss, and vigorously debate ideas, both in and out of the classroom. Education involves drawing out and probing premises, arguments, and conclusions. Neither comfort nor unthinking conformity is the objective, because learning involves discomfort as we think about a wide range of ideas and test our assumptions. Education involves drawing out and probing premises, arguments and conclusions. Neither comfort nor unthinking conformity is the objective because learning involves discomfort as we think about a wide range of ideas and test our assumptions.”
The full statement, which can be found at marquette.edu/free-expression, builds off an earlier version drafted by students that UAS also endorsed in March 2022.
This statement serves as the university’s official position on matters related to ways Marquette as a private institution is guided by principles of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, coupled with the university’s “unique mission to enhance the moral and spiritual formation of its community members…, [which calls on us to] take account of the principle of human dignity and the compatibility of expression with genuine moral and spiritual formation, as understood within the Catholic, Jesuit tradition.”
