Academics Face Up to a Trump Administration

As the reality of Trump’s election sinks in, more and more academic institutions and faculty groups are staking out positions in support of immigrants, people of color, religious freedom, freedom of speech, gay rights, and human rights, all of which have been threatened by the incoming President or his senior staff.  For universities that were founded on the robust exchange of ideas, and that thrive on diversity, these are critical issues that strike at their core.  As Columbia University President Lee Bollinger told a group earlier this month, “[t]he University is not a political institution—we do not take positions on political issues. But when you have a system that produces a president and vice president that challenge the central idea of a university, one has to do something.” 

A number of the open letters and statements, including one signed by more than a hundred university presidents, are here.  Others include this statement from faculty at the Perkins School of Theology of SMU, Texas, and this from a group of Tufts faculty.

Many of these statements invoke human rights as emblematic of the fundamental values threatened by the incoming administration.  The Columbia Human Rights Institute explicitly stands with its social justice allies and calls on the new administration to respect human rights.  A group of Berkeley Clinical Faculty call for safeguarding the human rights of their clients, as well as students and staff.

In his Columbia speech, Bollinger issued an immediate mandate to “teach the Core Curriculum with more fervor and passion than it has ever been taught before.”  In law schools, courses on human rights, constitutional law and legal history take on new significance as we return to core debates that we thought were long ago resolved by common agreement on the rule of law.  It’s comforting to think that those of us in academia can do something to stem the tide of racism, mysogyny, xenophobia, and fear, by teaching with fervor and passion.  But is that enough?  As Bollinger said, “one has to do something,” and as events unfold, we may be called upon to do more.