Ideas matter

I have spent much of my life in universities. It did not surprise me that their leadership quickly caved in to the demands of fascism. I am well aware of the weaknesses of these institutions.  But I am also well aware of their strengths.  Fascists do not attack educational institutions because they are weak. They attack them because they fear their strength. That is why the emerging resistance to these assaults is important. 

Professors, students, staff, and community members are responding to these attacks. They are articulating the importance of intellectual freedom and the necessity of collective, coordinated actions. They are pointing a way for other sectors of our society to not only respond to fascism, but to develop a deeper understanding of what we value and how we can re-constitute practices and principles that we think are essential for full, meaningful lives.

The faculty Senate at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst has adopted a resolution to establish Mutal Academic Defense Compacts to protect academic freedom, free expression, institutional integrity, and research efforts. Their resolution documents “government overreach into universities in ways that violate academic freedom and institutional self-governance.”  

They go beyond thinking only of themselves but call for their President and Chancellor to organize resistance across the educational landscape, explaining:  

So far, these events have happened in relative isolation, with little communication and coordinated response across affected or soon-to-be-affected institutions. This resolution seeks common ground across institutions uniting in a common defense to collectively safeguard their shared values of academic freedom, free expression, democratic governance, civic responsibility, scientific discovery, and the pursuit of knowledge.

The faculty urges its President to establish “A Public and Land-Grant University Mutual Academic Defense Comact (PLUMADC) at state and national levels to develop “a shared or distributed defense infrastructure designed to respond immediately and collectively to attacks by the governmental actors on any member institution.” This includes sharing legal counsel, communication strategies to counter misinformation, legislative advocacy and diversifying funding streams.  It also calls for robust public education on the dangers we all are facing now.

This action by the UM-Amherst faculty is indicative of the best in our educational institutions and is being replicated across the country as faculty and students are coming together to articulate what is valuable about education and the institutions devoted to it.

Harvard University, as our first advanced educational institution, became the first to openly and forcefully refuse to comply with a list of outrageous demands from the Trump administration. The list of demands effectively places every aspect of academic life and inquiry under the scrutiny of the federal government. In exchange for federal funding, the Trump administration would take direct control of regulating the “intellectual conditions” at the university, requiring “audits” of the viewpoints of students, faculty and staff and targeting people because of their ideas.

In response, Alan Garber, the president of Harvard, established this basic principle:

The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.
 
The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge. No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.
 
Our motto—Veritas, or truth—guides us as we navigate the challenging path ahead. Seeking truth is a journey without end. It requires us to be open to new information and different perspectives, to subject our beliefs to ongoing scrutiny, and to be ready to change our minds. It compels us to take up the difficult work of acknowledging our flaws so that we might realize the full promise of the University, especially when that promise is threatened.

Fascists cannot tolerate open, critical, thoughtful discussion. They fear new ideas and the capacities of human creativity to enhance individual and community life. This attack on thinking, on intellectual freedom, and the power of creative consciousness is an opportunity to actually strengthen our educational institutions and our understanding of why ideas matter.