On Sept. 10, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Trustees Jacqueline Holmes sent a news bulletin to the student-info and employee-info email groups clarifying the College’s policy on political campaign activities. As a federally tax-exempt organization, the College must maintain a neutral stance on all political campaigns, but this policy does not apply to individual speech or issue-based advocacy.
The timing of the email prompted some speculation that it may have been related to recent posters for the Kenyon Young Democratic Socialists of America (KYDSA) with New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s portrait. However, Holmes told the Collegian in an email, “The policy has been in place since 2018, and the recent communication was to raise awareness about the policy in general, not in response to anything in particular.”
“As an educational institution, Kenyon strongly supports the free exchange of ideas, and our policies seek to ensure that students, faculty and staff have the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn,” Holmes told the Collegian. “Any restrictions are narrowly defined and limited to expression that violates the law or constitutes a genuine threat or harassment.”
A key distinction that Holmes emphasized is the difference between support for (or opposition to) a political candidate and political issues. Kenyon’s policy only applies to statements made about candidates when using campus resources. “The limitations do not apply to expressing views on political issues that do not relate to supporting or opposing a candidate,” Holmes wrote to the Collegian. Thus, advocacy organizations such as KYDSA, Planned Parenthood Generation Action and Kenyon Students for Justice in Palestine may use College resources to advocate for certain policy positions, provided they do not express support for a candidate by name.
While the news bulletin focused on the College’s restrictions on political speech, the policy as a whole provides campus advocacy groups with a significant degree of leeway. Section VI of the policy even outlines a procedure for campus groups to host partisan political activities.
Liberal arts colleges like Kenyon encounter a unique balancing act; traditionally, educational institutions have been hubs of political debate and the exchange of opinions. One major draw for liberal arts colleges is the benefit of a broad range of learning and exposure to ideas across disciplines. But any educational institution is a business of some kind and must consider external factors as well. Holmes has reiterated that the College remains committed to a free and full exchange of ideas.