On August 13, I was one of 800 participants in a webinar sponsored by UCLA faculty members, “Save Our Science,” an informational session on how to assess and respond to the massive cuts in California science funding. The grassroots organizers, scientists and faculty members, are establishing a pooled fund to support research and higher ed in the state. Amy Reid, Senior Manager for PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program, who participated in the webinar’s well attended first day, recommended that I tune in because she thought it might cheer me up.
During the webinar, several participants suggested cooperation with the unified action of the Big Ten universities. The faculty senate at Rutgers University began this initiative on April 6, creating “a mutual defense compact,” with the aim of uniting the Big Ten’s 18 universities to combat President Trump’s war on higher education. The agreement involves pooling expertise among the universities’ legal counsels and public affairs offices. The university senate at Rutgers passed a resolution calling for “an academic NATO” for the Big Ten.
Rutgers/Newark Professor Paul Boxer told The New Republic in May, “The goal of the Mutual Academic Defense Compact is threefold: protect academic freedom, defend institutional integrity, and promote the scholarly enterprise.”
The collective action of most universities in the Big Ten has raised the morale of students, faculty and staff. A revolution is not won overnight.
In addition to Rutgers, 13 of the other 17 Big Ten schools drafted resolutions affirming these three basic principles. These include Indiana University Bloomington, Michigan State, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Washington, Ohio State, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Oregon. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University — and, I’m proud to say, Penn State University. While the presidents and administrations of all 18 Big Ten universities were not involved in the compact, 10 Big Ten presidents joined over 650 of their colleagues in signing a statement issued by the American Association of Colleges and Universities: “We speak in one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”
In June, Michigan State, Rutgers, the University of Maryland, and the University of Oregon joined 14 other universities in filing an amicus brief in Harvard University’s lawsuit against the suspension of billions of dollars in research funding. All for one and one for all.
No one expected that the Big Ten alliance would lead to immediate capitulation from Trump and his minions. One hundred thirty-six Big Ten Conference students have had their visas revoked, and student activists at the University of Michigan have been intimidated. But the collective action of most universities in the Big Ten has raised the morale of students, faculty, and staff. A revolution is not won overnight.
I am calling on Pennsylvania higher education institutions, public and private, to join together to save science and protect every citizen’s right to higher education. Penn State’s faculty senate’s participation in the Big Ten alliance is leading the way in the Commonwealth.
How to do this?
Let’s start in Philadelphia with the Higher Academia Task Force, established on June 7 and co-chaired by Temple University President John Fry and St. Joseph University President Cheryl McConnell. City Council member Isaiah Thomas authored the resolution convening the task force in conjunction with the Pennsylvania General Assembly. It’s groundbreaking for Philadelphia-area colleges and universities to unite for any purpose. As Thomas explained to Metro, “I don’t know a time, at least in recent history, that we’ve seen these universities come together under an umbrella like this.” The task force’s original mission was to collaborate on changes that will come about as student athletes begin to profit from their name, image and likeness. But they’re also uniting to work to prevent local closures of higher ed institutions — like what happened with Rosemont College, University of the Arts, Cabrini College and PAFA — and other efforts to scale back supports for higher ed. It’s time to expand its mission.
The committee includes representatives from Arcadia, Holy Family, Delaware Valley, Ursinus, Penn State Abington, Eastern, Villanova, La Salle, Newmann, Peirce, Bryn Mawr, Chestnut Hill, Swarthmore, Immaculata, Gwynedd Mercy, Moore College of Art & Design, and the University of Pennsylvania. Several Philadelphia state lawmakers, City Council members, City Controller Christy Brady and U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle’s Office are part of the task force.
Given the current dangers, even while the task force is just getting to know each other and establishing trust, it’s time to be bold. The group should consider its own mutual defense pact, mirroring UCLA and the Big Ten. Unified action is our only defense against the threats to science, education, democracy and truth itself.
It’s too easy for Trump to exhort transactional deals with lone universities. In unity there is strength.
Further, the campuses of Penn State, PASSHE, University of Pittsburgh — ideally all PA campuses — should unite around common values. It’s too easy for Trump to exhort transactional deals with lone universities. In unity there is strength.
This collective action should do more than address the many violations of college and university sovereignty — the freezing and withdrawal of research funding on various pretexts having nothing to do with research; the imposition of a right wing curriculum; the banning of selected vocabulary from websites; the intrusion of government into admissions decisions. Collective action is also required on reforms that will strengthen higher education’s contribution to the public good.
A covenant with America
It’s imperative for higher education to affirm a brief list of positive reforms that could elicit bipartisan public support. Trump’s Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent issued a letter on August 4 about “Restoring Greatness in Postsecondary Education.”
While I don’t agree with most of his specific proposals, I believe that we can find common ground with his purported intent to establish needed higher education reforms. I’d like to see the Higher Academia Task Force and other PA collaborations endorse what I’m calling “A Covenant with America.” Here are some examples of unifying principles:
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- Ensure that all college students believe that their free speech rights are secure.
- Motivate colleges and universities to break down silos so that every student works within a framework of life design, connecting preparation for careers and a fulfilling life.
- Disrupt the current system of student dependence on loans with affordable pathways to degree completion. Encouraging sustained alliances between community colleges and four-year universities would be one such pathway. Broad-based agreement on credit for life experience would be another. Like Penn and Temple, universities should offer free tuition for qualified low-income local students.
We already have successful examples of all three proposals. Unified agreement and wide scaling would be revolutionary. And, yes, we need a revolution. We have to unite around both grievances and values.
What can we do immediately?
Higher education and our democracy itself are under threat. No one is coming to save us. To paraphrase Pogo, a political comic strip that some of us remember, we have met the heroes and it is us. The UCLA faculty called on the 800 webinar participants to start today to do whatever we could. College employees or faculty senate members can organize, as the Rutgers faculty senate has done. Concerned citizens can talk to neighbors and family members about the threatened destruction of U.S. higher education and the undermining of scientific discovery. We can bombard Congressional offices so that representatives see their own jobs in jeopardy if they decline to protect science and education. We can contribute whatever we can to universities and advocacy groups.
It’s remarkable how much damage has been done in just eight months. We owe it to future generations to do whatever we can to change course. That means both resisting daily indignities and supporting necessary reforms.
Elaine Maimon, Ph.D., is the author of Leading Academic Change: Vision, Strategy, Transformation. Her long career in higher education has encompassed top executive positions at public universities as well as distinction as a scholar in rhetoric/composition. Her co-authored book, Writing In The Arts and Sciences, has been designated as a landmark text. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.
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