
CHE | Wikimedia Commons
The history of position statements has not been investigated. We don’t know how they have become so commonplace, how they have emerged as apparently obligatory responses to current events. Each time one of these documents is disseminated, it comes as it were out of a black box, with no explanation of why the university is responding to this issue (but not others) through these administrators (but not others), with these resources (but not others). There is no archiving or accountability for their production. They are everywhere and speak for all of us — and they are no one’s responsibility.