MARQUETTE — The executive committee of the Northern Michigan University branch of the American Association of University Professors / American Federation of Teachers 6761 has released a statement regarding recent political attacks on higher education.

Within the statement, the AAUP stated that it “roundly and unanimously condemn the authoritarian actions undertaken by the current administration that threaten to undermine academic freedom and campus free speech.”

The union “cites the arrest and detainment of students who have expressed pro-Palestianian views, the withholding of research funds in order to compel campus policy changes, and the issuance of the ‘dear colleague’ letter as examples of recent threats to academic freedom and campus free speech.”

“Our excellent Superior Edge program has already changed the name of its Diversity Edge component to Diverse Perspectives and Experiences Edge and have deleted specific references to the Holocaust, Martin Luther King Jr., National Coming Out Day and the Pow Wow that occurs on campus, which had previously been identified as examples of how to complete that portion of that program,” said AAUP information officer Joshua Ewalt. “Thus far at NMU we have had faculty express concerns with the union about the status of their grants and whether their teaching will be affected by executive orders.

The policies and rhetoric from Washington can create a culture of intimidation and we want to ensure that that culture of intimidation does not impact our faculty’s right to teach the topics they have long studied.”

These concerns come on the heels of the Trump administration’s immediate cancellation of $400 million in federal grants and contracts with Columbia University due to “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” according to a statement released by the Department of Education. Columbia was the first university whose students staged an occupation of university property as part of pro-Palestianian protests, inspiring a wave of similar student occupations that eventually included NMU last spring.

To get the funding back, Columbia had to comply with a list of demands given by the commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service in collaboration with the Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which included an order to “begin the process of placing the Middle East, South Asian and African Studies department under academic receivership for a minimum of five years.”

The Columbia chapter of the AAUP released a statement saying that “taken together, these incidents are clear attacks on the university’s fundamental purpose to create knowledge in an environment free of intimidation and political coercion, and on the wider right in this country to peaceful protest and political speech.”

“Just speaking for myself, it seems as though the current admin is going after everything I care about, almost one by one,” said Dr. Jud Sojurn, NMU professor of Native American studies and AAUP / AFT 6761 Committee I chair. “I watch children hurt, killed or injured by weapons paid for with taxes from the money I make teaching … we see every day, all day, right through our phones, children blown apart, burned or trapped under rubble. Most people close to me seem to hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. But that is a sure path to nowhere.”

“Incursions upon civil liberties and financial and linguistic threats directed at our institutions have caused many of our faculty to fear for their personal safety, worry about the future of our most vulnerable students, or fear retaliation for teaching topics that they have studied and researched for the majority of their professional careers,” said the NMU AAUP statement.

“In all, I worry for each student, each faculty member, every staff member and every administrator,” said Sojurn.

The AAUP statement goes on to list the recent events which inspired it, including the demands given to Columbia as well as the detainment of Columbia University student Mahmous Khalil, the detainment of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, “the use of banned terms to prohibit scientific research based on ideological grounds” and the “dear colleague” letter, “which sought to pressure educational institutions across the nation into procedural compliance with an ideology that considers DEI programs and policies to be ‘over and covert racial discrimination,'” according to the statement.

NMU AAUP concluded by stating that their members “have already signed onto a letter supporting our colleagues at Columbia University, and our executive committee members have been involved in organizing meetings at regional and national levels. We anticipate undertaking demonstrations on a continuous basis, and will continue to monitor the response of our university to actions in Washington.”

“We will show up if you hold a community event and we invite you to show up when relevant events are held on campus,” said Ewalt. “If nothing else, do what you always do — let our international and transgender students, workers and faculty know that they are welcome members of NMU, Marquette and the (Upper Peninsula) Don’t assume they are doing well — their very right to exist in the United States is being called into question. Let them, and everyone else, know that you support academic and human rights for everyone.”