The university is under attack. The Trump administration’s all-out assault on higher education, academic freedom, and civil liberties must not stand.

The Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA) calls on faculty to join for an hour of action to defend higher education and political freedom at every campus this Wednesday, March 19th, at 12:00pm.

Trump has declared he will leverage federal funding away from universities that do not promote “patriotic values”. His assault on academic freedom links the punitive slashing of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding, the DOE investigation into 60 universities on unsubstantiated claims of antisemitism, and the DHS abduction of Columbia University student protestors Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Korda over their support for an end to the genocide — attacks that are direct threats to university workers everywhere.

The repression of antiwar and Palestinian activism is a blueprint for the repression of all of us. This fact is plain to see in Columbia’s expulsion of UAW president Grant Miner one day before the start of bargaining negotiations, on purported grounds of pro-Palestine activism. It is apparent in the ongoing ICE raids that have deported people without regard for immigration status. If the Trump administration can disappear legal permanent residents with the right to live and work in the United States, and deport them merely for their views, none of us are safe. Higher education workers come from all over the world, bound by a shared commitment to foster critical intellectual inquiry through our research, teaching, and advocacy. We are in an existential fight. We must defend the university, our students, and our right to a workplace free of repression.

On Wednesday, March 19, at noon, we call on all faculty to gather at SFGH Hospital in full regalia or professorial attire in black. Please make signs saying “hands off our students,” “Release Mahmoud Khalil and Leqaa Korda,” and other messages in defense of academic freedom. We must stand together to affirm our commitment to each other, an independent university, and public education for the common good!

Join us to:

• Urge the California legislature to condemn the Trump administration’s attack on public education and rescind the 8% cuts to UC/CSU funding, and to pledge to cover all federal research funds withheld during this political crusade.
• Call on UC leadership to publicly denounce Trump’s assaults on higher education, academic freedom, and civil liberties.
• Demand an end to surveillance and monitoring. Given the federal government’s threat to use AI to identify campus protesters, UC administrators must refuse to share data, including photos and video footage extracted from surveillance of campus protest with the federal government and affirmatively commit to not video record or photograph protests, events, and actions that could be used to target students, faculties, and staff based on protected speech.
• Demand full legal and financial support for UC community members affected by ICE raids, travel bans (including a possible new travel ban primarily targeting Muslim-majority countries), terminations, and funding cuts.
• Ensure campus safety: A commitment that the UC administration will adopt practices to prohibit employers from giving voluntary consent to an immigration enforcement agent to access “any nonpublic areas of a place of labor” or to “access, review, or obtain the employer’s employee records,” and refuse voluntary cooperation or information sharing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies charged with facilitating deportation or other forms of immigration enforcement.

At this time of rising authoritarianism in the United States, the only way to save our universities is to stand together. We are in an existential fight. Join the UCSF Faculty Association and call on California to defend academic freedom and civil liberties.

Want to get more involved? Fill out the CUCFA intake form and get involved on your campus and in our working committees!  (You may notice a UCLAFA banner at the top of the page; this is not a mistake. Please fill in the form and indicate your campus in the box provided.)

Sincerely,

Jess Ghannam
Interim Chair, UCSF Faculty Association