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50 signatures reached
To: President Sunil Kumar and Tufts University Board of Trustees
Tufts University: Reject the federal government’s political control
To: President Sunil Kumar and Tufts University Board of Trustees
We are Stand with Tufts, a community of alumni, faculty, students, and supporters in Massachusetts and across the country who care deeply about the future of Tufts University.
As proud members of the Tufts community, we strongly believe that in a time of heightened threat to higher education, our universities must stand strong in defense of academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the safety of students, staff, and faculty of all backgrounds. In the face of the federal government’s increasing assault on higher education, we as alumni are prepared to stand with the university administration to protect the values that have built the culture of excellence at Tufts.
That’s why we are grateful for the university’s declaration in defense of Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student who was unlawfully targeted for deportation by federal immigration authorities for an opinion piece she co-wrote in The Tufts Daily. The university’s role in securing the release of Öztürk demonstrates the best of what Tufts can be: a bastion for academic freedom that stands to protect its students, staff, and faculty.
The Trump administration has continued to escalate a serious campaign against higher education institutions like Tufts. Just last month, the Pentagon reportedly moved to review or restrict certain tuition assistance programs for active-duty service members in graduate programs at universities including Tufts, citing what top officials portrayed as hostility to military values.
These challenges demonstrate one thing: more work remains to be done.
The Trump administration has continued to escalate a serious campaign against higher education institutions like Tufts. Just last month, the Pentagon reportedly moved to review or restrict certain tuition assistance programs for active-duty service members in graduate programs at universities including Tufts, citing what top officials portrayed as hostility to military values.
These challenges demonstrate one thing: more work remains to be done.
For Tufts to be that bulwark, our university must strengthen its defense of academic freedom as the federal government’s threats against it grow and evolve.
To meet this moment, we ask that the Tufts administration:
- Publicly reaffirm Tufts’ commitment to academic freedom, freedom of speech, and advancement of knowledge without political interference as core principles of the university. The reaffirmation should include a public rebuke of the federal government’s attempt to leverage research funding for political capitulation.
- Join universities taking a principled stand for the shared values of higher education.
- Maintain transparency and accountability with alumni, students, faculty, staff, and the public about how Tufts is addressing threats to academic freedom and free speech.
- Reject the “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education” and any future settlement agreement with the federal government that:
- Restricts diversity, equity, and inclusion in curricula, admissions, or hiring.
- Restricts teaching of race, gender, or any other issues.
- Otherwise constrains faculty autonomy in developing and teaching courses.
- Imposes ideological conformity.
- Suppresses faculty, student, or staff speech.
Why is this important?
Our democracy and academic freedom are under assault. Universities like Tufts must fight back to preserve academic freedom, a key pillar of a free society. That’s why we’ve formed Stand with Tufts.
We ask that alumni, faculty, students, and staff sign this petition in support of academic freedom and freedom of speech at Tufts. We will present the petition to Tufts administrators to urge them to up their game as they stand strong and fight back against the ongoing assault on these freedoms.
https://bit.ly/StandWithTufts