A group of 255 professors at Brown University have joined hundreds of alumni and other Brown community members in signing a letter addressed to university administrators underscoring their support for academic freedom on campus and safety for international students and faculty. The letter comes following the news that the federal government plans to withdraw $510 million in grant funding from Brown.
The signees to the letter say they were motivated by the outcomes at other colleges where the Trump administration first threatened funding cuts and then followed up with demands for changes to university policy. Columbia University conceded to nearly all of the federal government’s demands after the Trump administration said it would withhold $440 million in grants. Inside Higher Ed reported that Harvard University also appears to be responding to the demands made by the Trump administration.
Brown, however, has not yet received a letter from the Trump administration like those sent to Columbia and Harvard outlining demands.
Linford Fisher, a history professor at Brown University, said the goal with the letter signed by Brown community members is not to antagonize Brown administrators, but support the ways they have communicated Brown’s principles so far.
“It’s a call to Brown administrators to protect community members with the full force of the law as much as possible, and not to pre-emptively give in to demands that don’t have legal backing,” he said.
Brown University president Christina Paxson wrote in a letter to the campus community last month that the demands placed on other universities “raise new and previously unthinkable questions about the future of academic freedom and self-governance.” She and other campus leaders have repeatedly said that academic freedom is critical to Brown’s mission and that point is a non-negotiable.
“If Brown faced such actions directly impacting our ability to perform essential academic and operational functions, we would be compelled to vigorously exercise our legal rights to defend these freedoms, and true to our values, we would do so with integrity and respect,” said Paxson.
The professors in their letter to Paxson and other university leaders said that faculty must have a role in responding to potential demands from the federal government, if they affect academic freedom of expression.
“It is imperative that any changes to Brown academic programming be decided and implemented in partnership with the faculty,” they wrote in the letter.
Faculty also highlighted concerns about international community members in the letter. Last month a Brown Medicine professor and kidney doctor was deported while trying to return back to the United States from Lebanon. Federal authorities said Dr. Rasha Alawieh was deported because she was among the hundreds of thousands of people who attended a funeral for assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
So far, unlike several other Ivy League institutions, Brown has not had students or faculty seized from campus by immigration authorities. Brown faculty signaled in the letter they would like to keep it that way.
“Brown must do all it can to ensure the safety of its non-U.S. citizens. Without a legal directive such as a warrant or subpoena, the university must not assist immigration authorities or provide them with information about any member of the Brown community,” faculty wrote.
Brown leadership has previously communicated that the university’s police force does not work with or provide information to federal immigration authorities without legal compulsion.
Fisher, the history professor, said he is hopeful school leaders will reaffirm their commitment to academic freedom and protecting students as the campus faces unprecedented uncertainty.
“Brown is still trying to figure out what its response will be, but I have been heartened so far with the commitment as publicly articulated by the administration and President Paxson to Brown’s core values, freedom of speech, academic integrity, protecting community members,” he said.
This story was originally published by The Public's Radio. It was shared as part of the New England News Collaborative.
