Northwestern faculty discussed the Trump administration’s recent attacks on higher education at a University Under Threat town hall on Thursday, encouraging faculty to band together to urge University officials to stand up to the federal government.
The forum comes after NU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors drafted 10 resolutions for consideration by the Faculty Assembly, partially in response to the University’s response to the $790 million federal funding freeze.
The resolutions called on the University to adhere to First Amendment standards and add eight “faculty visitor” positions to the Board of Trustees, among other requests. The resolutions passed 338-83 during the Faculty Assembly last month.
Thursday’s event began with a presentation by McCormick Prof. Luís Amaral. He discussed the different ways in which the Trump administration is placing restrictions on free speech and making it harder for judges to challenge executive orders. He also highlighted the recent arrests of international students on college campuses across the country and said the Trump administration is interfering with the rights of both students and faculty.
“People that are not identified … as police are picking up individuals out of the street using extraordinarily violent methods, without warrants, and many times attacking the wrong people,” Amaral said. “Our plans may be canceled or frozen, but there is a bigger problem right now of us living in a society in which rules do not exist.”
Spanish and Portuguese Prof. Jorge Coronado, treasurer of NU-AAUP, spoke about the importance of the chapter’s work in the fight against academic censorship.
Coronado explained the history of the AAUP’s advocacy, including its Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure, issued in 1915, and Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure, issued in 1940.
“It sets the standard for many of the ways in which we think about how we inhabit the University,” Coronado said.
He said NU-AAUP’s resolutions have proven popular with the rest of the faculty, which he said could help strengthen NU’s chapter.
History Prof. Leslie Harris presented on the history of higher education, including how access has expanded throughout generations. She said she is worried that the federal government’s actions could reverse years of research progress.
“What will happen if all programs that have taken decades to build in the modern research university are shredded and destroyed?” Harris said. “It could well take another century or more to recover.”
Harris also discussed the Board of Trustees’ role in responding to the Trump administration, calling the Board “out of step in some ways” and criticizing its focus on “protecting (funding) for future generations.”
“When your house is burning, you can’t think about saving part of it for future generations,” Harris said. “What we know now is that this is an emergency, and we really need to stand strong and fight it. We cannot continue to negotiate with the nonnegotiable.”
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