Today, the National Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Conference begins on Penn’s campus. We commend the University for allowing PennBDS to host a conference on our campus, just as it would allow other student groups to.
By doing so, Penn has acknowledged the importance of freedom of speech on this campus — a freedom that is key to fulfilling its role as a modern academic institution.
The tenets of The Daily Pennsylvanian rest on this same freedom of speech. We are here to provide the Penn community with a public forum to express ideas.
In the days leading up to the conference, we received guest columns and letters to the editor from both sides of the debate over Israel. We allowed individuals with different points of view to express their opinions and use us as a forum for discussion.
These views were aired in our opinion section and we have largely left it up to our submitters to decide how they convey what they believe.
Part of the mission of our organization is to provide this forum. While we do not necessarily agree with or endorse the views we publish in guest columns and letters to the editor, we think it’s important for our content to reflect the diversity of views on this campus.
Dana Tom is the Executive Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Her email address is tom@theDP.com
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