The Rectorate acknowledges the report produced by the Working Group and recommends it as a tool for reflection to all members of the UNIL community who intend to speak in public.
The growing involvement of researchers in the public debate has led the UNIL Rectorate to launch a reflection on this issue. It submitted this topic to researchers from all faculties, who met in spring 2020 in a working group convened by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Ethics (CIRE) and the Centre of Competence in Sustainability (CCD). The reflections and conclusions of the working group, as well as its recommendations, were sent to the UNIL Rectorate in a report in May 2022.
The Rectorate now acknowledges the report produced by the Working Group and recommends it as a tool for reflection to all members of the UNIL community who intend to speak in public, as well as to anyone within and outside UNIL interested in the issue of public speaking by academics in a democratic environment.
On that basis, the Rectorate will now be in a better position to ensure that the members of the UNIL community have the necessary conditions for free and argued intellectual debates. It notes, as it does in its Statement of Intent, the need for such debates to strengthen trust in science and to respond forcefully to the misinformation that affects the very basis of our societies.
The Rectorate expresses its gratitude to the members of the Working Group for their mandate. The report and the composition of the Working Group can be found on the following link https://www.unil.ch/centre-durabilite/recherche-et-engagement (The report is in French language, but pp. 12-17 provide an extensive summary in english language).