UMass Amherst resolution

Faculty at UMass Amherst have passed a fantastic resolution calling for the formation of

A Public and Land-Grant University Mutual Academic Defense Compact—a nationwide alliance among public institutions
A Massachusetts Higher Education Mutual Academic Defense Compact—a statewide coalition across public and private institutions

Be it resolved that, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Faculty Senate urges the President of the University of Massachusetts system, the Chancellor of the University, and the Rules Committee of the Faculty Senate to formally propose and help establish a Public and Land-Grant University Mutual Academic Defense Compact (PLUMADC) among all public and land grant universities that would like to participate;

Be it further resolved that, the Faculty Senate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst urges the President of the University of Massachusetts system, the Chancellor of the University, and the Rules Committee of the Faculty Senate to formally propose and help establish a Massachusetts Higher Education Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MHEMADC) among public and private colleges and universities across the Commonwealth that would like to participate;

Be it further resolved that, under these compacts, participating institutions shall commit meaningful support—financial, legal, organizational, and/or strategic—to a shared or distributed defense infrastructure designed to respond immediately and collectively to attacks by the governmental actors on any member institution;

Be it further resolved that, these compacts shall facilitate the mobilization of institutional resources—including legal counsel, governance experts, public affairs professionals, faculty governance leaders, research capacity, and media relations—to coordinate a unified and robust response, including but not limited to:

● Legal representation and, where appropriate, countersuit actions;
● Public communication strategies to counter misinformation and defend academic principles;
● Filing of amicus briefs, publication of expert testimony, and other legal interventions;
● Legislative advocacy and coordinated policy engagement at the state and federal levels;
● The development of collaborative strategies and frameworks to diversify funding streams beyond the federal government; and
● Rapid-response research and public-education initiatives;

Be it further resolved that, this resolution be transmitted to the leadership of all Public and Land-Grant Universities across the nation and all institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as well as their shared governance bodies;

Be it finally resolved that, the President of the University of Massachusetts system, the Chancellor of the University, and the Rules Committee of the Faculty Senate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst take leading roles in convening summits of faculty and administration leaders to initiate the implementation of these Compacts and affirm the collective commitment to defend academic freedom, free expression, institutional autonomy, and the public mission of higher education in the Commonwealth.

Please share the resolution

This was inspired by another resolution passed by the Rutgers Senate.

Be it resolved that, the Rutgers University Senate urges the President of Rutgers University to formally propose and help establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) among all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance;

Be it further resolved that, under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund. This fund shall be used to provide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement;

Be it further resolved that, participating institutions shall make available, at the request of the institution under direct political infringement, the services of their legal counsel, governance experts, and public affairs offices to coordinate a unified and vigorous response, including but not limited to: Legal representation and countersuit actions; strategic public communication; amicus briefs and expert testimony; legislative advocacy and coalition-building; related topical research as needed.

Be it finally resolved that, this resolution be transmitted to the leadership of all Big Ten universities and their respective governing boards and shared governance bodies, and that the President of Rutgers University take a leading role in convening a summit of Big Ten academic and legal leadership to initiate the implementation of this Compact.

Closer to home, Cornell University’s University Assembly has passed a resolution proudly defending the University’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and calling for its robust defense at all levels of the University. This will be posted once the final version is made available on the Office of the Assemblies site.

Cornell faculty in support of democracy and academic freedom

The brazen assault on academic freedom sweeping across the country has again got Cornell in its sights.

There is a letter to the Cornell board of trustees circulating right now, and we urge all Cornell faculty to sign it.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCQXl77TWPhipU1-BDIl4RjXJfnjtbBRsRQZS1aYEHg_m2Sg/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawJmArJleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHlyrWHA6jW86CBJJcBHosEa3xZLZYUgP0KHVV3YGyN0JbHkfvIgDgigZB-xe_aem_38-jfNWB7O_LR-2rqcZB_A

For some of the legal context, you should check out some of Michael Dorf’s posts, on Columbia and on the AAUP filling the void left by Columbia’s capitulation.

See also the longer statement co-authored with other constitutional law scholars.

Under Title VI, the government may not cut off funds until it has

conducted a program-by-program evaluation of the alleged violations;

provided recipients with notice and “an opportunity for hearing”;

limited any funding cutoff “to the particular program, or part thereof, in which…noncompliance has been…found”; and

submitted a report explaining its actions to the relevant committees in Congress at least thirty days before any funds can be stopped.

These requirements aim to ensure that any withdrawal of funds is based on genuine misbehavior on the university’s part—on illegal toleration of discriminatory conduct, not just on allowance of First Amendment–protected expression. The requirements aim to make clear to recipients of federal funds just what behavior can form the basis for sanctions. And each of the requirements aims to make sure that the sanction fits the offense.

Yet here the sanction was imposed without any agency or court finding that Columbia violated Title VI in its response to antisemitic harassment or discrimination. Even to the extent that some protesters’ behavior amounted to illegal harassment of Jewish students, no agency and no court has concluded that Columbia illegally failed to reasonably respond to such discriminatory behavior—much less failed to act at a level justifying withdrawal of nearly half a billion dollars in funds. The government’s action therefore risks deterring and suppressing constitutionally protected speech—not just illegal discriminatory conduct.

President by fiat

Cornell AAUP chapter member Eric Cheyfitz has a fantastic piece in the Daily Sun, putting recent university developments within the longer history of the evisceration of meaningful faculty and shared governance at Cornell.

https://www.cornellsun.com/article/2025/04/cheyfitz-president-by-fiat

“By fiat, the Board of Trustees has just appointed Interim President Michael Kotlikoff as the 15th president of Cornell University. For the first time in my 22 years here as a tenured member of the faculty, there has been no national search for the university presidency. Such searches typically include faculty. So this suspension of a search is one more sign of the decline in faculty governance, which has been declining rapidly at Cornell … The increasing decline of faculty governance nationally has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of the corporate university, which, over a hundred years ago, Thorstein Veblen recognized in his 1918 book The Higher Learning in America. Today, by and large, university presidents play the role of CEO, taking their agendas largely from boards of trustees and donors rather than faculties. President Kotlikoff fits squarely in this mold at a time when the corporate model has become particularly toxic with the Trump administration’s assault on liberal education with its foundation in free speech and academic freedom. “

Read and share!

The abduction of Mahmoud Khalil

12 March 2025

Below is a joint statement from AAUP chapters about the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil and the withholding of federal research funds from Columbia.

For Immediate Release

Contact: kweld@aaup-hfc.org

Statement from Harvard, MIT, UChicago, and Cornell AAUP Chapters Regarding Ongoing Crisis at Columbia University

We write to condemn in the strongest possible terms two recent and related federal attacks on Columbia University: the impoundment of some $400 million in research funds, and the targeting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of Columbia students and alumni involved in pro-Palestine protests—in particular, the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, who is a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

To search for adequate precedent for these brazenly illegal and partisan actions requires looking to the worst days of the Red Scare or the Alien and Sedition Acts. Nothing in the Constitution permits a president to target his political opponents by defying laws passed by Congress or by detaining and threatening to deport people for their viewpoints. Yet the illegality of these moves is almost beside the point; their architects quite candidly describe them as part of a wider crusade against higher education, an attempt to impose top-down control on what Americans teach, study, and learn.

Columbia has borne the brunt of this onslaught over the past week. Yet we know that our own universities are next in the crosshairs. We do not need the crisis to reach our doors before we will rise to defend the academic autonomy of our research and teaching activities, the free speech rights and safety of our community members, and the essential scientific and humanistic contributions of universities to our society. We, the undersigned chapters of the American Association of University Professors, stand in full solidarity with our colleagues at Columbia.

AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter

AAUP-MIT

University of Chicago AAUP

AAUP Cornell University Chapter

CGSU-UE letters to community

More resources from CGSU-UE – the graduate student union endorsed by over 90% of the student body. The university administration has shared loudly and widely its perspective. Here’s the other side.

https://cornellgradunion.org/adminletter

Board of Trustees:

The current federal administration’s funding cuts pose an unprecedented threat to scientific research and the infrastructure of higher education. As stated clearly in the recent email from Cornell Leadership, “if the research capabilities of America’s universities are destabilized and undermined in this way, no institutions will be capable of filling the void of discovery and innovation as a public good.” We agree completely that this proposed removal of funding constitutes an existential crisis to research and teaching. The standards of excellence in research and teaching at Cornell are at risk, as are the livelihoods of the workers who maintain them.

During this moment of crisis, Cornell has the opportunity to play a defining role in protecting education and science against our current administration. We need it to rise to the occasion. If federal cuts to research funding proceed, we call on Cornell’s administration to draw on its considerable financial resources, including but not limited to its $10.7 billion endowment, to ensure that research and teaching continue uninterrupted.

We came to Cornell for its dedication to its mission to “discover, preserve and disseminate knowledge” and arrived committed to advancing human knowledge and higher education with our work. Cornell’s administration can honor the academic mission of this institution and the people who do this work by committing to offset any losses incurred due to federal funding cuts. Now is the moment for Cornell’s administration to embrace its responsibility as a leader in research and education. …

More at the link!

Another letter is for the wider Cornell community:

CGSU-UE Calls on Cornell “To Do the Greatest Good” for Scientific Progress

Federal courts have halted the National Institutes of Health’s catastrophic funding changes, in part thanks to a lawsuit undertaken by Cornell and other university plaintiffs. This lawsuit is a meaningful stand in defense of science and a practical step to protect the University and those who work here, but its effects are temporary. NIH leadership has stated that the Institute will “effectuate the administration’s goals over time,” making it only a matter of time before we face last week’s funding crisis again.

Beyond the NIH, United States Agency for International Development-dependent projects are in limbo, executive orders are piling up and the research infrastructure that drives scientific progress across the nation is, if not actively crumbling, at risk. During this crisis, Cornell has the opportunity to play a defining role in protecting education and science against our current administration, and we — graduate workers, participants in American society and drivers and beneficiaries of scientific advancement — need our university to rise to the occasion. As federal funding cuts proceed across agencies, we call on Cornell’s administration to draw on its considerable financial resources, including but not limited to its $10.7 billion endowment, to ensure that research and teaching continue uninterrupted across Cornell.

Cornell is a private institution with extensive financial resources. Expert financial stewardship has protected the University during troubling times, and, in recent years, ensured unprecedented investment returns. Cornell’s financial health must be maintained of course, and the value of the endowment must continue to grow — but not for the sake of growth alone, but for the sake of, in Ezra Cornell’s words, “the greatest good.” Cornell’s administration has reminded the University community of the endowment’s purpose repeatedly. It is a “perpetual and self-sustaining source of support for the University and its mission,” designed to protect and advance the University’s workings, especially during times of trouble, explained then-chief financial officer Joanne DeStefano MBA ’97 in 2020. We recognize these parameters. But, should the federal government continue wreaking havoc on the federal agencies that fund our research, the devastation to Cornell’s research community, and to the scientific progress writ large, will be enormous. To protect science against the most aggressive attack we’ve witnessed in decades, Cornell’s administration must draw on its extensive financial resources to ensure research continues uninterrupted. …

More at the link!

GUEST ROOM | CGSU-UE Calls on Cornell “To Do the Greatest Good” for Scientific Progress