So, what can the WashU community do in this precarious moment? The answer must begin with a clear-eyed recognition that we now operate in a fundamentally altered landscape in which both academic freedom and the institutions supporting it face direct government hostility.

WashU’s Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing has ended its postgraduate fellowship, a one-year program where students in the MFA program had the opportunity to teach classes as a postgraduate fellow for a year following the completion of their two-year degree.

In an email addressed to the WashU community last Monday, Chancellor Andrew Martin emphasized that the WashU administration was doing “all [it] can to advocate for the university” in light of the recent investigations and funding cuts under the Trump Administration.

We ask that all students and members of the WashU community, regardless of their political affiliations, be willing to protect everyone’s inalienable rights, whether that be through writing letters to the WashU administration or standing up for peers who are being threatened and targeted. We also urge the University administration to clearly and transparently state the actions it intends to take if a WashU international student’s visa or green card is revoked without the University’s consultation, and if federal agents attempt to detain a student on campus grounds.

Martin and Diermeier’s hubris becomes even clearer when applied to other university departments. Is the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department expected to be neutral on the topic of feminism? The Latin American Studies department on human rights abuses by the U.S. government? WashU’s own WashU & Slavery Project is certainly not neutral on its subject matter, nor should it be! Academic work is often quite political, and that’s OK. 

As the Student Life editorial board, we call on Chancellor Martin and the WashU administration to stand up for minority students on campus, just as they do for their researchers.

He kept threatening to “repeal and replace” Obamacare; he attempted a “Muslim Ban”; he advocated for higher police force when it came to protests; he told Colin Kaepernick to get up. My God, he kept messing with North Korea. But what my parents, sister, and many others saw as irreparable damage being done to the stability of our democracy — whatever little remained — the rest of America only saw as stand-up material.

Following the news that the United States Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump of both Articles of Impeachment, finding him not guilty on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress, members of the Washington University community reacted with mixed feelings.

As has become clear with the confirmation hearing of Betsy DeVos, education will be one of the quiet battlegrounds in this administration. The administration’s views on school choice and public education are deeply problematic for the state of Missouri.