BUZZ
Previous College Fix research found colleges pledged neutrality but then supported LGBT celebrations
A handful of colleges have backtracked on “Pride Month” posts citing the university’s institutional neutrality policy.
“Several [colleges] posted and then deleted Pride Month messages on social media,” Inside Higher Ed reported. “Others have dropped out of local Pride events or issued directives preventing LGBTQ+ Pride flags from flying on campus.”
The publication says “the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro and Lamar University in Texas,” all had pro-LGBT messages but then deleted them.
Both UNC schools posted about Pride Month through their athletic department X accounts. Both schools told Inside Higher Ed they removed the content to comply with institutional neutrality.
The University of North Texas also dropped its sponsorship of a local LGBT “pride” event.
Meanwhile, the University of Chicago said its companion K-12 school would not be flying a Pride flag as normal in order to comply with the college’s longstanding policy on neutrality.
“I think the university saying that an observer who sees something flying from a flagpole and understands that to be a statement of the institution is a reasonable interpretation of how flagpoles operate, and so that doesn’t strike me as an unreasonable rule,” an official previously said, explaining the decision.
The College Fix reported last year that about half of schools with institutional neutrality policies still posted in support of Pride Month.
Similarly, Syracuse University pledge neutrality in 2024.
The university said it would not make “institutional statements or pronouncements on current controversies” “except under the most extraordinary circumstances and with the sole purpose of protecting its mission of discovery, improvement and dissemination of knowledge.”
“Instead, the University will employ a commitment to institutional neutrality to prevent the University from committing to positions that go beyond the stated academic mission or its protection,” the “Syracuse Statement,” promised at the time.
Three days later, it broke the pledge with a “Happy Pride Month” post, The Fix previously reported.
MORE: Institutional neutrality will probably fail at Harvard
