5,000 signatures reached
To: University Presidents and Trustees
STAND WITH YOUR SCHOOL: Federal government attacks 9 universities. Sign the alumni petition now.
An Open Letter from Alumni to Defend Freedom and Constitutional Rights
To the Presidents and Trustees of the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Virginia:
To the Presidents and Trustees of the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Virginia:
Independence and freedom from political interference have made American universities global beacons in innovation, research, and scholarship. Academic freedom, along with the bedrock constitutional freedoms of speech, association, expression, and inquiry, form the foundation of American higher education and democracy.
The federal government’s announcement on October 1 of the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" offers preference and insider access to federal funds in exchange for your “voluntary” agreement to sweeping limitations on what and who can be taught, hired, supported, and expressed on campus. A well-known chapter of the authoritarian playbook is the undermining and takeover of educational institutions. The government’s "Compact" is the latest in a series of assaults, made without reason or basis, on the very purpose, values and integrity of higher education.
We, the undersigned alumni of your institutions, implore you to join together and collectively resist this widescale and unlawful intrusion into your operations and governance. We ask you to embody and stand up for academic freedom and your core mission and values, and to protect the educational livelihood of your students, faculty and staff – whose varied experience, scholarship and perspectives are vital to the learning process and strength of higher education.
Whatever benefits you might receive out of entering into the Compact would be vastly outweighed by how destructive your participation would be for your campus community - and higher education more broadly. We urge you to be the united front line that rejects this latest onslaught and ensures the freedom and survival of higher education in America.
Whatever benefits you might receive out of entering into the Compact would be vastly outweighed by how destructive your participation would be for your campus community - and higher education more broadly. We urge you to be the united front line that rejects this latest onslaught and ensures the freedom and survival of higher education in America.
This is a time for courage, not capitulation. Do not sign on to the Compact.
Why is this important?
The future of American higher education and our democracy is at stake. If you are an alum from one of these 9 schools, please sign this urgent alumni petition to support your alma mater as well as schools across America that are counting on you to take a stand for campus freedom.
Stand for Campus Freedom unites alumni across generations, geographies, and viewpoints to defend academic freedom and democracy. Together, we are building a national movement that holds universities accountable to their highest ideals, resists political coercion, and strengthens America’s leadership on the world stage. SCF is a project of Democracy House, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that integrates the focus and practice of democracy into college and university life.