Universities
American universities must defend academic freedom, science, and democracy, before it is too late.
On Thursday, June 26th, Stanford University President Jon Levin and Provost Jenny Martinez announced that there will be a reduction of $140 million for the 2025 - 2026 academic year, excluding the School of Medicine. These budget cuts are a direct response to recent federal policy changes and will require staff layoffs, on top of the already implemented staff hiring freeze. Faculty hiring may also be slowed, although they plan to prioritize financial aid and uphold the 5-year funding promise for PhD students.
On June 4th, a group researchers filed a lawsuit against the Trump regime in an unprecedented defiance against the federal funding cuts to science. They filed as an independent group, without official support from the university system, as five researchers from University of California, Berkeley and one from University of California San Fransisco. All of the individuals had recently lost research funding. A few days later, the Trump regime threatened to slash almost all federal funding to the entire UC system.
Hakeem Jefferson, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford. On May 30th, Dr. Jefferson spoke at Stanford AAUP's Rally to Defend Education and Research. He called for courage and clarity as we stand up to the Trump Regime, and he insists that we cannot be neutral because neutrality is complicity. Please also see Democracy section of our webpage for another speech from the May 30th rally.
American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) published a letter which has been signed by over 600 university presidents (as of 5/26). It bravely protests the Trump administration's “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” in higher education and threats to academic freedom.
The Stanford Daily published a letter signed by over 600+ Stanford Faculty from various disciplines, including the sciences, the humanities, engineering, medicine, law and more. They urge the University President to sign the AACU letter despite the institutional neutrality policy, which allows exceptions during times that "threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry".
Robert Reich, JD, served as the Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration and is currently the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. On April 17th, he delivered a remarkable speech at a Berkeley rally in which he warned that "We are in a national emergency." He commended Harvard and called on Berkeley to similarly reject the Trump regime's demands. Professor Reich enthusiastically highlighted the importance of solidarity, courage, and integrity in order to be prepared for what's to come.
Prof. Reich: "The only way to deal with a tyrant is to deny the tyrant the ability to be tyrannical."