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A group of Stanford University professors, staff, and students is urging the university to more strongly condemn the Trump administration’s actions toward higher education.
Stanford’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote an April 15 letter to Stanford President Jonathan Levin requesting a stronger statement of condemnation of the government’s actions and asking the university to pledge solidarity with other higher education institutions. More than 2,300 faculty, alumni, and students have signed the letter, which urged Stanford leaders to make a “strong, public statement of support and stand with Harvard” and to vow to “defend our autonomy and uphold our crucial ability to define the terms under which we teach, research and serve the public good.”
The Associated Students of Stanford University issued a letter with similar requests on April 16. A group of Stanford alumni, writing under the name Standing up for Stanford, made its own plea for unity with other universities in an online petition.
The AAUP has also asked Stanford leadership in letters, emails, and town halls to sign a letter from the American Association of Colleges and Universities calling for constructive engagement and speaking out against the “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”
“We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight,” the letter from AACU states. “However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding.”
The AACU letter has been signed by leaders of more than 400 colleges and universities, including University of California, Berkeley, San Francisco State University, all eight Ivy League schools, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northwestern University. Members of the AAUP said they believe Stanford should join these ranks.
“To this day President Levin has declined to sign [the AACU letter], which has singled out Stanford as an outlier in the higher education community,” said Cécile Alduy, a Stanford French literature and French studies professor who serves as an AAUP media liaison.
According to a university spokesperson, Stanford’s president and provost have been addressing the issues raised in the AACU statement on an ongoing basis, including in Levin’s April 10 Faculty Senate remarks, in a joint message to the Stanford community at the start of the spring quarter, and in a statement expressing support for Harvard’s objection to the federal administration’s demands.
“Rather than signing open letters, they have focused on articulating their own views,” Stanford’s Director of Media Relations Luisa Rapport said in an email, referring to Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez. “At the same time, Stanford is collaborating closely with peer research universities, the Association of American Universities, and other organizations in responding to the administration’s executive orders. This includes joining several legal challenges to the proposed cuts in federal funding for research.”
Still, Alduy, speaking on behalf of the AAUP, said that the Trump administration’s policy decisions – including federal funding cuts to universities and student visa revocations – are impacting Stanford faculty and students. Signing the AACU letter is important, Alduy said, because it would send a “symbolically very powerful” signal that Stanford will defend values of due process, the free exchange of ideas, and civil liberties.
By signing the letter, Stanford would “endorse all the values, principles and modes of actions that have been outlined by that letter, which really for us, restate fundamental principles that cannot be troubled upon,” Alduy said.
The AAUP – a nonprofit membership organization with different university chapters that advocates for academic freedom – has grown from five to more than 130 Stanford professors in the last few weeks as concerns about interference into higher education have grown among faculty, Alduy said.
“There was a general sentiment among faculty at Stanford that we absolutely needed to create a wider coalition of universities and colleges to uphold very basic tenets of academic freedom, both for faculty and for the institutions themselves and how they’re governed,” said Alduy.
She added that the AAUP is focused on freedom of speech on campuses and threats to scientific research from reductions in federal funding, especially in the medical field. In February, the National Institute of Health announced it would place a 15% cap on facilities and administrative costs to universities and research institutes. The NIH provides significant funding to Stanford, and the university said in a February statement that the cap could represent a funding reduction of $160 million per year.
Rapport, the university spokesperson, said that Levin and Martinez welcome receiving communications on these issues and support the expression of diverse viewpoints.
“They have also been clear in their belief that the federal government must respect universities’ academic freedom and ability to engage in open inquiry in pursuit of continued discovery and innovation,” Rapport said.
