Statement on civil discourse and the right to peaceful protests
Dear Skidmore Community,
The events of last Thursday, when two different community marches in Saratoga Springs
occurred and the Black Lives Matter event was met with a significant law enforcement
response, continue to trouble our community, and rightly so. Since then, I have been
working to determine exactly what happened and why, and to try to sift through all
the complexities of the events. What is abundantly clear is that Skidmore students
and alumni participating in the Black Lives Matter protest faced a disproportionately
forceful response. I have reached out to our students who were present to learn more
about their experience.
The right to peaceful protest is central to our democracy and must be preserved and
sustained, and the rule of law is an essential element of a free society. Last week’s
disturbing events on our doorstep are representative of the struggles our nation faces
right now. Dialogue, trust and respect are essential for change to occur, and that
is why the relations between Skidmore College and Saratoga Springs are so crucial
and interdependent. Consequently, we need to work with the city to ensure that the
safety and rights of our entire community are respected.
We will involve Skidmore students in our work with city officials to talk through
the events of last week and determine how we can support peaceful protest in our community.
We are in conversation with the mayor’s office about the establishment of a task force
on policing in Saratoga Springs. Our students, staff and faculty would be part of
this policy effort, in conjunction with local law enforcement and civic leaders. We
are engaged in this process as a constructive path for making meaningful social change
that can also unify our community while preserving the crucial freedoms that lie at
the heart of the American experiment.
We are committed to promoting and safeguarding those freedoms, including the freedom
of speech and freedom of association for all members of our community. Our community
grows stronger when we engage in constructive, fact-based discourse and treat everyone
with respect, including those with ideas and views that are different from our own.
As the late U.S. congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis asserted, "Without
freedom of speech and the right to dissent, the civil rights movement would have been
a bird without wings."
I look forward to partnering with all our constituents on meaningful forward movement
in the weeks, months and years to come.
Sincerely,
Marc C. Conner
President