Academic Leaders Unite Against Trump Administration's Threats to Higher Education

Academic Leaders Unite Against Trump Administration's Threats to Higher Education

    Monday, April 28, 2025   No comments

In a significant display of unity, over 500 college and university presidents, along with leaders from scholarly societies, have signed a public letter denouncing the Trump administration's recent actions against academic institutions. The letter, organized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU), criticizes what signatories describe as "unprecedented government overreach and political interference" threatening the core principles of higher education. ​

The petition emerged in response to a series of federal actions targeting universities, particularly those with perceived liberal leanings. Notably, Harvard University faced a $2.3 billion funding freeze and threats to its tax-exempt status after refusing to comply with demands to audit its academic programs for ideological diversity and expel students involved in pro-Palestinian protests. In retaliation, Harvard filed a lawsuit against the administration, arguing that such measures violate constitutional rights and academic freedom. ​

The petition has garnered support from a diverse array of institutions, including Ivy League schools like Yale and Princeton, as well as public universities such as the University of Hawaii. Signatories emphasize their commitment to academic independence and the free exchange of ideas, asserting that universities should not be coerced into aligning with political agendas. ​

In addition to the petition, several universities have taken legal action against the administration. Harvard's lawsuit challenges the legality of the funding freeze and the broader implications for academic autonomy. Other institutions are exploring similar legal avenues to protect their rights and resist federal overreach. ​

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also voiced strong opposition, urging universities to uphold free speech protections and resist federal pressure to surveil or punish students and faculty for their political views. The ACLU's letter outlines key principles for institutions to follow, including encouraging robust discussion, protecting student privacy, and abiding by constitutional protections. ​

The petition remains open for additional signatures, reflecting the growing concern among academic leaders nationwide. Supporters argue that defending academic freedom is essential not only for the integrity of educational institutions but also for the preservation of democratic values. As the situation develops, universities continue to navigate the complex balance between federal expectations and their commitment to independent scholarship.

In recent months, universities have increasingly become focal points of governmental efforts to suppress dissent against the ongoing war in Gaza. Institutions of higher education, traditionally seen as bastions of free thought and expression, have been subjected to heightened scrutiny and intervention. Student activists who have organized peaceful protests or voiced criticism of the war have faced severe consequences, including disciplinary actions and surveillance.

Moreover, there has been a disturbing rise in the deportation of international students holding valid student visas, alongside professors and researchers, solely based on their participation in protests or public expressions of opposition to the war. These actions reflect a broader strategy to silence critical voices within academic spaces, undermining fundamental principles of academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the right to peaceful assembly. The targeting of scholars and students in this manner not only threatens individual rights but also weakens the role of universities as centers for critical inquiry and social debate.

US House Republicans want to send Americans to Gaza; Americans should take the offer

US House Republicans want to send Americans to Gaza; Americans should take the offer

    Wednesday, May 08, 2024   No comments

The US Republicans, who would otherwise support freedom of speech to continue to spew hate and racism, found the limits of freedom of speech and expression not to extend to those who speak up against genocide.

Fox News reports that a new House Republican bill would send student protesters to serve a minimum six-month community service sentence in Gaza.

"I am going to bet that these pro-Hamas supporters wouldn’t last a day, but let’s give them the opportunity", said Rep. Randy Weber, who introduced the bill along with other Reps.

White American students, and all those who benefit from the power that comes with an American or British passport should call their bluff: they should all buy a ticket and head to the Egyptian border with Rafah, Gaza, and to the Jordanian border with West Bank, Wadi Araba Crossing, and cross en mass into Gaza and West Bank; a million white people, peacefully walking across into West Bank that is under daily attacks by settlers and Gaza that is bombed every day with American weapons, to witness the daily struggles of Palestinians first hand.

When Israeli troops use violence against American white citizens, who are attempting to enter into Palestine, not Israel, these so-called elected leaders will be put to the test: stand to protect the rights of Americans or throw them under the tank. This also will be also a quick way to stop the genocide, or see it happen with their own eyes.  

Students should thank these House Republicans for the idea of them heading to Gaza, and act on it, instead of them being forced to be sent there.

Media Review: A college professor who protested the Vietnam War in 1968 compares her experiences with the anti-genocide protests currently happening at Columbia University

Media Review: A college professor who protested the Vietnam War in 1968 compares her experiences with the anti-genocide protests currently happening at Columbia University

    Sunday, April 28, 2024   No comments

MICHEL MARTIN, NPR HOST:

Demonstrations are still going on at more than a dozen universities across the country where students are calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, and they say they want their schools to divest in companies that do business with Israel. The epicenter of these demonstrations is Columbia University, where images of police arresting students brought back powerful memories of another protest there.

MARTIN: In 1968, Eleanor Raskin was a student at Columbia and took part in demonstrations against the Vietnam War there. Raskin, now Eleanor Stein, now teaches law and human rights at the State University of New York, and she's with us now to talk about whether she sees parallels between then and now. Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us.

ELEANOR STEIN: It's a pleasure.

MARTIN: If you would just remind us, for people who weren't there or don't remember, about the demonstrations in 1968 - what started it, and what happened?

STEIN: It's hard to conjure up what that moment was for our country. It was a moment of real crisis. But the issues at Colombia, there were two, really, that were critical, basically a war research body. The Institute for Defense Analysis had a contract with Colombia, which could have meant participation in military research for the war. The second issue was that Colombia was in the process of building a new gym. And they were building it in Morningside Park, one of the few green spaces in Harlem. And we felt that it couldn't be business as usual, that the university itself was engaging in an indefensible takeover of Harlem land and an indefensible participation and complicity with the Vietnam War effort. And students felt so strongly about this. We felt that whatever the risks, whatever the outcomes, we should demand that the university take action.

MARTIN: So what did you do?

STEIN: Well, first, I went to the rally. And then, at the rally, people decided to go into a classroom building, Hamilton Hall, and kind of have a sit-in. And then we decided to stay and to kind of barricade the doors. I ended up going into another classroom building, Fayerweather Hall, where I lived for five days, and I was arrested there. So actually, we were much more disruptive in terms of the functioning of the university. We were blocking access to classroom buildings. Whereas today, there's - none of that has been going on.

listen/read full interview

 

Media Matters: Elon Musk, owner of "X", suspends the account of Mandela's grandson

Media Matters: Elon Musk, owner of "X", suspends the account of Mandela's grandson

    Saturday, April 27, 2024   No comments

 In a total tone-deafness, and lack of awareness of the symbolism and reality, the former white settler in South Africa and self-declared free speech absolutist, Elon Musk, suspended the account of the nephew of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s freedom icon, without even burdening himself with an explanation—although the reasons are obvious.

Social Communication Platform X (formerly Twitter), Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela account, grandson of the late President of South Africa Nelson Mandela، After his statements in support of the "International Fleet of Freedom", which is to be sailed from Turkey within days, to break the siege on Gaza Strip.

Mandela had arrived in Istanbul at the beginning of the week to attend the fifth conference of the Jerusalem International Parliamentary Forum, and to support preparations for the International Freedom Fleet in Istanbul.

 Mandela attended the press conference of the International Freedom Fleet, which is made up of NGOs from 12 countries last week, before expressing his support for the fleet and breaking the siege on Gaza, through several publications on the platform "X".

Berkeley law school professors claim privacy of their home to limit free-speech after hosting a University event in the home

Berkeley law school professors claim privacy of their home to limit free-speech after hosting a University event in the home

    Saturday, April 20, 2024   No comments

 Media coverage depicts Palestinian students' attending and protesting a university event as an attack on professor's private residence. 

During a dinner for students that the dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school held in his house’s backyard earlier this month, a woman wearing a hijab and checkered Palestinian scarf suddenly stood up with a microphone and amplifier. What followed lasted only a couple of minutes, but has led to a fierce debate about the limits of free speech, drawn death threats for those involved, and created a “media firestorm”, as the dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, has put it.

Some short and chaotic viral videos illustrate part of what happened. One of them shows the woman, Malak Afaneh, as she gives a Ramadan greeting; she is accompanied by a small group of other student protesters. As Afaneh begins reading a speech about the Israel-Gaza war, Chemerinsky and his wife, the law professor Catherine Fisk, quickly cut her off.

“This is not your house,” Fisk says, putting her arm around Afaneh’s shoulder and trying to grab the microphone. “This is my house.”

For a pair of law professors, and from the point of view of conducting university business from one's home, for the duration of the event, the home is no longer private home. The rules of the University apply to the event that is part of the university events.

The known facts are as follows: the pair of law professors used their home for a University event. For them to claim privacy after they invited the students home, and then telling them what to do and what not to do or say during such a  university event amounts to discrimination.

If the dean and his wife, also a law professor, did not want students protesting in their home they should not, freely and willingly, make their home an extension of the University of California.

French artist Corinne Raye, known as "Coco" publishes a cartoon in the newspaper "Liberation" mocking Muslims in Gaza, who are being starved to death

French artist Corinne Raye, known as "Coco" publishes a cartoon in the newspaper "Liberation" mocking Muslims in Gaza, who are being starved to death

    Wednesday, March 13, 2024   No comments

Freedom of expression has no limits in the West, when the freedom of expression is used to attack Muslims, and now Muslims who are subjected starvation. The left-wing newspaper Liberation in France published a racist cartoon about the month of Ramadan in Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a murderous, destructive Israeli war since last October 7.

 The French artist wanted to depict the scene of hunger in the Strip, so she showed the man chasing rats in search of food to satisfy his hunger.

Liberation newspaper's editor-in-chief is Dov Alfon, who formerly worked for Israel's military intelligence unit 8200. The newspaper is owned by French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi.

This happens at a time when UN agencies gave reported catastrophic conditions in Gaza due to US government repeated vetoes that prevented UNSC resolutions from being adopted, and thanks to Western governments lack of concern for the deaths among civilians, 31,000 at this point, 72% are children and women. 

 

In Gaza, thousands of children have been injured and killed, more are losing their lives to malnutrition and diseases, hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

All children in Gaza are exposed to widespread destruction, deeply distressing events and trauma. ~ UNICEF, Mar. 12, 2024.

  

Commenting on Sweden's permission to burn the Qur'an, Turkish FM, Cavusoglu, says, Hate crimes are not freedom of expression

Commenting on Sweden's permission to burn the Qur'an, Turkish FM, Cavusoglu, says, Hate crimes are not freedom of expression

    Monday, January 23, 2023   No comments

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will denounce the Swedish authorities' permission for the leader of the far-right Danish "hard line" party, Rasmus Paludan, to burn a copy of the Holy Qur'an in the capital, Stockholm, and stressed that such crimes do not fall within the framework of freedom of expression.

Çavuşoğlu said that they "do not allow the burning of books of other religions, but when it comes to the Holy Qur'an and hostility to Islam, they immediately invoke freedom of thought and expression."

The Turkish minister stressed that hate and racism crimes do not fall within the framework of freedom of thought and expression, whether according to Swedish laws or decisions of the Council of Europe or the European Court of Human Rights.

He pointed out that Turkey was quick to take the necessary steps as soon as it learned that the Swedish authorities had allowed the extremist in Al-Wadan to burn a copy of the Noble Qur’an in front of the Ankara embassy building in Stockholm.

Davutoglu indicated that the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to Ankara to the ministry's headquarters and issued the necessary warnings to him, explaining that the Turkish ambassador to Stockholm, Yonat Janzel, spoke directly with the Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Bilstrom in this regard.

He expressed his hope that the Swedish authorities would take the necessary measures at the last minute and prevent this racist and hate crime from happening, which would cause outrage in the entire world.

After the event, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that Sweden should no longer wait for Ankara to take any step within the framework of accepting its accession to NATO, in light of the burning of the Holy Quran in Stockholm.

Erdogan added, "You want to support terrorist organizations, and you support those who are hostile to Islam, and you want us to support your joining NATO... This will not happen at all."

And the Turkish president added, "We say clearly... Sweden is no longer waiting for any support from us for its accession to NATO... We say clearly that no one has the right to insult our sacred values."

Last Saturday, the Swedish-Danish extremist Ramsos Paludan carried out what he promised to burn a copy of the Holy Qur’an in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, amid great police protection and a large media presence.

The many ways Ukraine war exposed Western racism and double standard: Paris to Russia: the satirical cartoon is “Unacceptable”

The many ways Ukraine war exposed Western racism and double standard: Paris to Russia: the satirical cartoon is “Unacceptable”

    Friday, March 25, 2022   No comments

 You simply can't make this stuff up!

Today, Friday, Paris summoned the Russian ambassador to the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after he posted on his Twitter account cartoons that French diplomacy considered "unacceptable".

  

"We are striving to maintain a necessary channel of dialogue with Russia, but this behavior is totally inappropriate," the French Foreign Ministry said, referring in particular to a cartoon showing Europeans kneeling in front of Uncle Sam, who symbolizes the United States.

  

It should be noted that, France supported and defended the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist as protected form of freedom of speech even if they offend Muslims.

 

The Russian Embassy confirmed that “the question of the published tweet had been raised, among other points” during the interview on Friday morning. The Russian ambassador has on his side “draw the attention of our French colleagues to the provocations and acts of vandalism against Russian diplomatic representations in France” she added.

Updated story (3/29/2022): 

Limits of Freedom of Speech in Europe: German states to ban "Z" symbolizing support for Russia's war.

Apparently, publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in offensive ways to millions of Muslims is an absolute right; but taking a position on an a war in Europe is not freedom of speech.

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