BY FACULTY LETTER ORGANIZERS

The open letter discussed below originated after a group of faculty began to share notes about how their universities were handling the challenges presented by the Trump administration and about the apparent lack of communication or coalition building across institutions.

In response to escalating federal attacks on higher education, a national open letter titled We Must Leverage the Strength of Our Institutions and Stand Together is circulating widely among faculty across the country. The March 20 letter calls on the leadership of the sixty universities currently under federal investigation, ostensibly for antisemitism, to form an interuniversity coalition in defense of academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the safety of targeted students and scholars. It encourages the inclusion of other willing colleges and universities across the country in this collective effort. The letter warns of an “unprecedented federal attack on higher education” in which civil rights enforcement mechanisms, particularly Title VI investigations, are being weaponized to suppress speech and punish dissent.

Since its launch in March, the letter has garnered almost 4,000 signatures from faculty at more than 375 institutions. The attacks by the federal government on higher education have only continued since its writing, with more international students arrested by ICE for exercising free speech and Harvard as the administration’s next target. The letter outlines a concrete plan for coordinated action: reject unlawful federal directives, form task forces, defend international students, engage alumni and media, and issue joint public statements in solidarity with peer institutions. The letter concludes with a clear warning: “If universities do not stand together now, they will stand alone—and one by one, they will fall.”

On March 28 one university answered that call by passing a faculty senate resolution that demands its leadership establish a mutual defense compact. Rutgers University is calling for an alliance among the Big Ten universities in which “an infringement against one member university of the Big Ten shall be considered an infringement against all.”

This letter is not an official AAUP initiative, but it is firmly rooted in principles long upheld by the association and its members. The release of the letter marks the beginning of what organizers are calling April Academic Advocacy Month—a call for institutions to move beyond defense and toward proactive resistance. “Trump has no intention to stop here,” said Jennifer Lundquist, professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “We must build alliances. No one knows what that will look like yet, but if we don’t start the conversations, we’ll never have the chance to come up with collective solutions. What Rutgers has done in the Faculty Senate is a great start.” Kathy Roberts Forde, professor of journalism at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, added, “Universities must publicly denounce the intimidation of our community members and refuse to comply with unconstitutional government interference in the exchange of ideas.”

This letter is joined by growing pushback from thousands of faculty in other letters and petitions here.

Faculty, staff, and scholars concerned about the future of higher education are invited to read and sign the letter here and to circulate it widely.

Comments from some of the letter signatories include:

“As a South African who grew up under apartheid, I witnessed that regime’s violent assault on the academy. Their target was our freedom of thought. Like the apartheid government, the Trump administration is attacking not only our institutions but our ability to think freely. They’re threatening us because they want us to collude with our own oppression. We must refuse. Universities are the home of free thought, and we must protect that freedom.”

—Gabeba Baderoon, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African Studies and Comparative Literature, Pennsylvania State University

“This is a clearly authoritarian assault not just on higher education, but on free speech and civil society, modeled directly on what we’ve seen in Turkey, Hungary, and Russia. If we don’t oppose it here, where many of our institutions have the means to do so, we won’t be able to oppose it anywhere. Universities and colleges cannot just hope this will pass them by, that they can get through this unnoticed.”

—David A. Bateman, Associate Professor, Department of Government and the Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University

“Colleges and universities need to take bold action to push back on the Trump administration while engaging their communities and clarifying their core functions of education and research.  Suspending intercollegiate sports in response to the government  pressure could highlight the existential threat they face in an understandable way,”

—Daniel Cox, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at University of California, Davis

“Now is the time for higher education leaders, faculty, students, alumni, and indeed people from all walks of life to come together to support the basic principles of personal safety, freedom of inquiry, and freedom of association for colleges and universities, and all of their students and faculties. Without vigorous and coordinated protection, we may well lose these freedoms. And if we lose these freedoms, we lose our democracy.”

—Archon Fung, Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard University

“As university administrators and the governing boards to which they report adopt defensive postures in hopes of warding off the worst of the government’s aggressions, it falls to faculty to unite across disciplines and across institutions to make the positive case for why higher education and university-based research benefits all Americans. This is not a time to cower but rather a time to find our collective voice and act through strength.”

—Katrin Schultheiss, Associate Professor of History, George Washington University

“When the government messes with free speech at universities, it’s no longer a free country. I’d give up pay to protect what makes our universities the world’s best, and I’d guess my colleagues would, too. Though, to university leaders, I’d say that that would only be in exchange for a real seat at the negotiating table.”

—Kentaro Toyama, W. K. Kellogg Professor of Community Information at the University of Michigan