The message below was sent to faculty, staff, and students on February 20, 2026.
Dear Bryn Mawr Community,
To belong to this college is to accept an honest and beautiful invitation: to dwell alongside those whose histories, truths, and griefs may differ vastly from our own. It is a commitment to see one another as human beings carrying complex, living lineages.
Recently, we have seen this agreement fractured by the removal of Israeli flags from spaces on campus.
This email is not a citation of the Student Code of Conduct, which you should already know. This is an appeal to our collective character. Displays of heritage and identity—whether in a dorm window, an office door, or a shared hall—are the quiet emblems of selfhood that make our shared life visible. We are not making the political statement we might believe when these are torn down. We are, instead, engaging in erasure. We are telling a member of our own community that their narrative has no place here.
Our community does not come to Bryn Mawr to mirror the world’s divisions. We are all here to learn how to hold a mirror to the world while modeling what it looks like to remain curious, compassionate, and pluralistic.
We will always fiercely support your right to protest and dissent respectfully, and to advocate for the causes that move you. Nevertheless, true advocacy will never be at odds with someone else’s dignity. We ask that everyone move forward not merely by obeying the policies that allow us to coexist, but by honoring the humanity of every person who calls this campus home.
Provost and Professor of Creative Writing
Interim Dean of the Undergraduate College
Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
