WALLA WALLA Wash.– On April 16, Whitman faculty unanimously voted to pass a motion that calls for Whitman College to coordinate against the Trump administration’s attacks on academic freedom. The motion endorses a petition that calls for solidarity among the 60 universities who received a warning letter on March 10 from the Department of Education about Title VI investigations.
This motion was sponsored by the college’s chapter of the AAUP (American Association of University Professors), the faculty’s Academic Freedom and Due Process Committee, and the Faculty Affairs Committee. Chair of Faculty Susanne Beechey announced to campus that the motion passed unanimously in an April 17 email.
“[T]he faculty voted unanimously at our April 16 faculty meeting for a motion calling on Whitman College to coordinate with other colleges and universities in defending academic freedom, due process, and the rule of law,” the email announced.
The March 20 petition calls the 60 universities who received the Department of Education’s warning letter to create a task force. The petition outlines eleven objectives for the potential task force, including lobbying as a coalition for academic freedoms, building alliances with non-academic institutions such as unions, and writing op-ed campaigns in defense of fellow academic institutions, in the event that their academic freedoms are targeted by the Trump Administration.
The origins of this petition are unclear. It has almost 4,000 signatures.
President Bolton commented on the faculty motion and petition in an email to The Wire, noting that the College is already in coordination with other academic organizations.
“The College is already working through a number of national organizations that advocate in coordinated ways with congress, the presidential administration, and sometimes the courts, to educate about and stand up for higher education, for academic freedom, and for our students and faculty,” Bolton wrote, “(These include the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Presidents Alliance on Immigration and Higher Education, the American Council on Education, Independent Colleges of Washington, and others.)”
The petition argues that forming a coalition is a necessary step to prevent colleges and universities from being targeted individually.
“You are on the frontlines of a war that is unfolding against U.S. higher education. We look to you for leadership and coalition-building during a time when the stakes have never been higher,” the petition begins. It ends by stating, “Failing to act now will establish a dangerous precedent of capitulation. If universities do not stand together now, they will stand alone—and?one by one, they will fall” (bold text original).
Chair of Faculty Susanne Beechey noted in a comment to The Wire that the faculty motion is inspired by the College’s current actions to defend academic freedom.
“I note with appreciation that our campus has already taken some of the steps listed. The motion was offered in the spirit of support for steps the institution has already taken and a call for solidarity with other institutions so that we may be stronger together,” Beechey wrote.
The motion and the petition come in response to the Trump Administration’s threat of revoking over $400 million in funding from Columbia University if they do not comply with the administration’s proposed policy and academic changes. It also comes amidst the administration’s recent attempts to quell student activism concerned with the genocide in Gaza at Harvard University, by threatening billions of dollars in grant money.
“As far as I know, the task force does not yet exist,” Bolton wrote. “If one were to be created, we might well join if it added to and went beyond the work we are already doing nationally. Some of the things that are in the petition are ones we are already doing, such as supporting legal assistance for international students.”
The petition specifically calls for solidarity among the sixty institutions who received a letter from the Department of Education over concerns about antisemitism.
“An op-ed by Jewish scholars points out the hypocrisy of [the Trump] administration whose own officials have engaged in unchecked antisemitism,” the petition says. “Indeed, the federal government is using the language of civil rights enforcement as a cover for authoritarian overreach and encroachment, dictating what can be said, studied, and debated in our institutions.”
President Bolton told The Wire in an email that the College’s statement on academic freedom was endorsed unanimously by the Board of Trustees and faculty in November. One of its final statements says,
“The College community as a whole has a responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it. Such an open exchange of ideas is essential to a liberal arts education.”