Dear Class of 2029,

Congratulations and welcome to Stanford! We enjoyed meeting many of you over Admit Weekend last month, and we are excited to have you on campus in the fall. As you prepare to join our Stanford community, we wanted to take this opportunity to share more about the values that drive us and the principles that inform our commitment to you – and to one another.

At Stanford, we welcome students to a university infused with a sense of openness and possibility as expansive as the rolling California foothills and wide as the western skies. We are open to new ways of thinking, and we are committed to sharing our discoveries broadly to further collaboration and progress. We are open to people from across the nation and around the world, and we are stronger for having the contributions of scholars with a broad array of backgrounds, interests, and aspirations.

Stanford’s motto is “the wind of freedom blows.” Freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression are central to our teaching and research mission and to the education our students receive. Here, you’ll find a community where you are free – and encouraged – to think and speak openly, to discuss and debate, and to pursue the topics that interest and excite you. And you are also expected to honor the freedom of others to do the same, and to approach others with curiosity. Together, we are creating an atmosphere in which each of us contributes to a robust and meaningful exchange of ideas.

At its best, Stanford’s free-flowing intellectual exchange will be a source of new insights and discoveries. At its most challenging, it may require you to confront ideas that you find upsetting or even offensive, but that are nonetheless part and parcel of freedom of expression. Freedom of expression does not protect threats or harassment. It does, however, allow for rigorous discourse and even sharp disagreement.

This is, as we say in Silicon Valley, “a feature, not a bug.” After all, some of humanity’s most celebrated advances, from great literature to groundbreaking scientific discoveries, have come from ideas once deemed heretical. Discourse on our campus – and in our democracy – demands that rather than silencing speech you find objectionable, you counter with arguments and evidence of your own. Engaging constructively across differences is an essential skill not just in college, but also in your future career and throughout your life.

At Stanford, we provide opportunities for you to cultivate that skill, guided by a culture of curiosity and respect. This happens in the COLLEGE program, through our ePluribus civil discourse program, and a host of classes, clubs, and events. We do not shy away from complex topics and hard conversations, but we honor the humanity of those whose experiences and perspectives have led them to different conclusions. We believe that productive discourse is an important part of the academic experience, as students push themselves to interrogate what they believe and why, strengthening their convictions, or just as likely, embracing the greater nuance and complexity born of new knowledge.

The benefits of an open mind go far beyond the classroom. When you come to Stanford, you will have the opportunity to make friends you might not encounter anywhere else. You may meet in the dining hall, or the gym, or as lab partners, or at a club meeting. At first, you may think you have nothing in common. You may hesitate even to introduce yourself. But as the months go by, by staying open to the people around you, you will have bonds forged through late nights studying and fountain-hopping on beautiful spring afternoons. Stanford has a way of bringing people together.

We know that this is a dynamic time for higher education in America, but as we meet this moment, we are staying true to our purpose of learning and discovery – and to the spirit of free and open inquiry that makes it possible. When the wind of freedom blows across campus in the fall, we look forward to welcoming you home.

Sincerely,
Jon Levin, President
Jenny S. Martinez, Provost