The key principle that can save universities is “institutional neutrality”.
This idea is often attributed to a 1967 document called the Kalven report, written by a committee at the University of Chicago charged with reviewing the school’s role in social and political issues. The university itself, the report announced, must be neutral on those matters. Individuals within the university were free to be loud critics of society.
In fact, their criticism was essential, and only made possible because of the university’s unique commitment to an institutional design of utter neutrality and openness. There was no room, the report emphasized, for the university as an entity to engage in “collective action”. That would undermine the space the university needed to make for all voices of dissent.
www.theguardian.com
This idea is often attributed to a 1967 document called the Kalven report, written by a committee at the University of Chicago charged with reviewing the school’s role in social and political issues. The university itself, the report announced, must be neutral on those matters. Individuals within the university were free to be loud critics of society.
In fact, their criticism was essential, and only made possible because of the university’s unique commitment to an institutional design of utter neutrality and openness. There was no room, the report emphasized, for the university as an entity to engage in “collective action”. That would undermine the space the university needed to make for all voices of dissent.

How to save the American university
As Trump threatens funding and public trust plummets, US schools are in the fight of a lifetime. This is how they can survive – with their souls intact