Kudos to the #Rutgers University Senate:
https://senate.rutgers.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Resolution-to-Establish-a-Mutual-Defense-Compact-for-the-Universities-of-the-Big-Ten-Academic-Alliance-in-Defense-of-Academic-Freedom-Institutional-Integrity-and-the-Research.pdf

"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 [#BTAA]…Under this compact, all participating institutions shall commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund…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."

#Academia #Universities
@academicchatter

"The abduction and attempted deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, coupled with ongoing threats to university funding and crackdowns on activists, academics, and the imprisonment and attempted deportation of those without US citizenship, has stirred collective horror and rage among members of the Jewish Faculty Network, whose membership includes more than 200 faculty members at universities across Canada.

Our anger is not new, but it has reached a boiling point, following a year and a half of pro-Israel lobby groups audaciously claiming to speak on our behalf in support of the genocide in Gaza. Worse, they claim objections to Israel’s actions since the horrific attacks of October 7th, 2023, are antisemitic. Even when human rights lawyers, international law experts and those expressing solidarity with Palestinian women, children and civilians object to the IDF’s brutal massacres of civilians, we are told that they too are modern day antisemites. Especially when Jewish intellectuals express solidarity with Palestinian suffering, we are called ‘self-hating’ or ‘antisemites’ ourselves. This absurdity must stop. Real harm is caused by diluting the definition of antisemitism and weaponizing antisemitism in response to political dissent.

As Jewish faculty at universities and colleges across Canada, we extend solidarity to our colleagues in the United States who face this wave of xenophobic “cleansing.” We view with alarm the Trump administration’s renewed efforts to purge US public and private universities of students and staff whose speech and research it finds threatening to white and Christian supremacy. Among these efforts, we note in particular the scapegoating of gender and sexuality studies, social studies, humanities research on colonialism, racism, capitalism, and imperialism, and scientific research into climate change, social determinants of health, and public health."

https://socialistproject.ca/2025/04/statements-abduction-mahmoud-khalil/

Good points from Richard Thompson Ford, Stanford Law prof:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/gutting-dei-wont-save-us
(#paywalled)

"As lawyers across the political spectrum agree, the government cannot make giving up a constitutional right a condition of funding…Civil-rights laws do not permit the executive branch to run an extortion racket by withholding funding approved by Congress and then dictating terms for its return. Quite the opposite: Civil-rights laws require a careful, program-specific assessment to identify any violations, after which the Department of Education must give notice of its concerns and try to secure voluntary compliance. Only if such efforts fail may the department begin enforcement proceedings, which require it to submit a report to Congress 30 days before withholding funding. Even then, funds may only be withheld from the specific programs that violated the law. For example, the government can’t withhold grants from a medical school because of violations in the history department, much less, as in the case of Columbia, suspend a host of unrelated grants and contracts because of vaguely defined violations."

#Academia #DEI #Funding #Trump #Universities #USLaw #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

"The current Republican embrace of xenophobic anti-intellectualism is bad for America. It will make the country stupider and more provincial."

~ Jeet Heer

#Musk #Trump #DOGE #ICE #immigrants #students #universities #education

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/trump-academic-purge/

Another preventable tragedy, on rights, disrupted lives, & on economic & societal terms:

">1.1M foreign students come to the US each year to study
--> they contributed >$43B to the US economy in foreign currency balances
--> students who came to the U.S. to study founded 55% of America’s 582 start-up companies worth at least $1B."
-J Allen

#Universities #Colleges #Trump #RIghts #Immigration #Racism #Economy #Trumpcession #USPol

https://newrepublic.com/article/193206/trump-war-higher-education-demands-aggressive-response

*** This report may not be accurate. Times of India is the only outlet reporting it. ***

Hundreds of international #students have received an email telling them their #visas have been revoked.

The ‘justification’ is campus #activism or #SocialMedia posts.

#Trump #immigration #law #Constitution #CivilRights #FreeSpeech #RightToProtest #FreedomOfAssembly #Education #Universities #Colleges #ThoughtPolice #ViewPointDiscrimination #dissent #NaziState
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/hundreds-of-international-students-are-waking-up-to-an-email-asking-them-to-self-deport-for-campus-activism-or-even-sharing-posts-on-social-media/articleshow/119679695.cms

In more WTF #USPol #AcademicChatter #Universities

The Trump administration is asking for a bunch of super intrusive information on Chinese students at CMU and five other universities:

https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/media/letters/letter-farnam-jahanian-president-carnegie-mellon-university-transparency-universities