The University permanently removed the “K(no)w Justice, K(no)w Peace” banner over Cecil H. Green Library in early January to maintain institutional neutrality, Provost Jenny Martinez said at a Faculty Senate meeting on Jan. 26.

The banner was put up in 2020 to promote the newly launched exhibit, “Say Their Names — No More Names” in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The library staff organized the exhibit to bring attention to 65 Black Americans whose lives have been lost to police brutality and systemic racism.

Anh Ly, Assistant University Librarian for External Relations, wrote in an email to The Daily that the banner has been put up every fall quarter since 2020 for a promotion period of three to four months.

“When the promotion period ends… we take the banner down, as was the case this year and in previous years,” she wrote.

Unlike previous years, the University has decided not to re-install the banner next fall.

This decision came following a complaint made by Graduate School of Business (GSB) finance professor Jeffrey Zwiebel at a Faculty Senate meeting on Oct. 28, in which he called the banner “a clear violation of the University policy of political neutrality.”

In light of Zweibel’s comment, Martinez asked the AdHoc Committee on University Speech to evaluate whether the banner did in fact violate Stanford’s 2024 Policy on Institutional Statements.

Bernadette Meyler J.D. ’03, Special Advisor to the Provost on issues of freedom of expression and academic freedom, led the deliberation.

The committee decided that the banner did not represent a violation to political neutrality at present because it was an advertisement for an exhibit.

“An exhibit is not a ‘statement’ but a product of curatorial judgment within an academic context, for which advertising should be permitted,” Meyler wrote in an email to The Daily.

At the same time, the committee concluded that the banner would become a violation if it remained up indefinitely, as it would begin to seem less like an advertisement and more like a statement — even if the library exhibit is permanent.

Meyler communicated this opinion to the Green Library staff, who were already planning to remove the banner in January. They agreed the removal would be permanent this time.

The banner’s removal came weeks before President Donald Trump issued an executive order requiring universities remove their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

In a Faculty Senate meeting on Jan. 26, University president Jonathan Levin ’94 said that Stanford will “need to review programs on campus that fall under the DEI heading” and that it is likely that “some will need to be modified.”

According to Eugene Volokh, a member of the AdHoc Committee on University Speech, Trump’s attacks on DEI had no influence on the decision reached. “I have seen no evidence that anybody was asking, ‘What would the Trump administration think about this?’” he said.

Like Meyler, Volokh said that if the banner became a permanent installation, it would mean the University was taking a stance on a political issue. Regardless of whether the majority of faculty members and students supported the banner’s message, he believes the institution has a responsibility to remain neutral.

“[The University] is a forum for people to express views,” Volokh said, adding, “but it is not itself something that expresses views.”