Think of the best educational experiences you’ve had at WashU: the classes that resonated most with you, the conversations with peers about the world or something you read, the moments that sparked creativity and excitement for you. A true education isn’t simply pouring knowledge from one bucket to another, from professor to student. It’s a lively, unpredictable conversation where professors’ expertise meets students’ intellectual energy, generating new insights and ideas. That conversation requires academic freedom for all of us. And when that freedom is jeopardized, students lose. 

Today, actions by governments and university administrations threaten both teaching and academic research. The National Institutes of Health under President Trump has demanded that research universities eliminate DEI programs to remain eligible for the federal grant funding they need to continue their missions. The administration has illegally cancelled the visas of noncitizen students across the nation — including at WashU — often in retaliation for protected political speech. 

Some major universities are capitulating. Columbia University caved to White House demands by punishing student protesters with the hardest sanctions since the 1960s. Numerous flagship public universities, including the University of Michigan and Ohio State, have scrapped diversity programs.

In fact, some universities had begun to stifle faculty and student expression long before Trump’s presidency, including at WashU. Since cracking down on student protests last year, WashU’s leadership has redefined our freedoms of speech and assembly narrowly to exclude overt “politicization” that might compel the University “to take official positions on political and social issues.” 

In contrast, leaders at peer institutions such as Harvard have taken bold legal measures to defend their universities from government interference. Hundreds of universities and professional associations have condemned the Trump administration’s attacks on research and teaching. WashU’s leadership has been conspicuously silent, both in public and on campus, about the clear threat posed by these ruinous and illegal policies.

Let’s be clear: This wave of government repression is an assault on democracy itself. Open and accessible university systems are a keystone of free society. They pursue scientific research wherever the facts lead, foster vigorous debate on the most pressing civic issues of our time, and develop the nation’s next generation of leaders in arts, technology, and politics. There’s a reason Vice President J.D. Vance declared that “the professors are the enemy.” The Trump administration hopes to create a chilling effect on campuses nationwide, scaring students and professors away from any public critique of the government. 

In the absence of public resistance from WashU leadership, faculty at WashU this month have answered this crisis by forming a chapter of the AAUP. More than 200 faculty (and counting) joined our chapter in its first few days of formal existence.

The AAUP has been, for more than a century, the leading voice for academic freedom at universities nationwide. Founded in 1915, it advocates for academic freedom on campus, supports professors navigating threats to their academic freedom, and advocates for political change beyond the walls of a single campus. For example, just this March and April, the AAUP sued the Trump administration over violations of academic freedom and revocations of visas of noncitizen students and scholars.

Higher education is under fire. Many universities have responded to the government’s assaults with silence, half-hearted objection, or shameful cooperation. We understand that the government has put university administrators in a tough position. If they resist government pressure, they risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding; if they cave, they embolden the government to demand more. However, leadership requires strength of principle and decisive action in the face of attacks. 

Direct, vocal opposition works. Thanks to lawsuits and public mobilization, often spearheaded or supported by the AAUP, the Trump administration has walked back some of its most extreme policies, including restoring the visas of thousands of international students, at least for now. The threat has not abated, but there is no reason to be timid in the face of an incompetent president pursuing unpopular goals by unconstitutional means.

We call on Chancellor Andrew Martin to stand with faculty, students, and alumni at WashU — and with universities in St. Louis and nationwide — in condemning the Trump administration and in defending our academic freedoms and institutional autonomy.

A petition is currently circulating where WashU community members — students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumn i —can urge Chancellor Martin to join other university leaders in speaking out.

The AAUP is here to fight back against the government’s attacks and to hold the University administration accountable. Our chapter will help professors resist pressure to compromise the independence of their teaching and research. We want to support our students’ right to speak their ideas, to give a voice to our faculty, and to advocate for our community to continue to be a place where we can share our ideas openly with each other. We encourage colleagues to join our chapter.

Higher education is in crisis. We must meet this extraordinary moment with organization, voice, and action. History has its eyes on us.

The AAUP Executive Board:

Seth Graebner, Arts & Sciences — President

Seema Dahlheimer, McKelvey — Vice President

Michael O’Bryan, Arts & Sciences — Secretary

Katie Meyer, Law — Treasurer

Greg Magarian, Law — At-Large Member

Chris Dingwall, Sam Fox — At-Large Member