Delivering “ongoing geopolitical commentary” would compromise our mission, says Imperial President
The message, sent to all College members by email, comes at a difficult time for Hugh Brady.
President Hugh Brady said that Imperial would “provide an open forum” for students to discuss “all topics”, but that the university would not itself deliver “ongoing commentary” in a message addressing the war in Gaza.
“As an institution of higher education, our mission is to provide an open forum for debate on and exploration of all topics, in which everyone can participate in a respectful manner within the law,” he said. “Delivering ongoing commentary on geopolitical events would make it difficult to deliver this. It would also undermine our ability to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our students and staff, which is our highest priority.”
The message, sent to all College members by email, comes at a difficult time for Brady. Two weeks ago, a Palestinian student accused him of “not taking things seriously enough”, calling his comments up to that point “disgraceful”. She was especially upset with his remarks at graduation, where he commented on “the terrorist attacks in Israel and the rapidly escalating conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
This Tuesday evening at Union Council, a second student brought up his graduation comments, accusing him of “very evident bias”.
“The President has made statements supporting one side over the other,” said another.
In his email, Brady called out “the way in which some views have been expressed”, saying it is “clear that some of our members now feel unwelcome or unsafe on campus”.
“Any form of racist or hateful behaviour, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, will not be tolerated and all incidents will be taken extremely seriously.”
