Following an invitation from the UC San Diego Faculty Association (SDFA), CUCFA and the majority of UC campus Faculty Associations have endorsed the following statement:
We, faculty of the University of California, call on the UC Regents and President Milliken to publicly reject the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that was made available to all US universities and the demands made of UCLA in the “Resolution Agreement Between the US and UCLA,” recognizing that many of the demands infringe on academic freedom. Academic freedom, which is the ability of faculty to determine what we research and how we educate our students in the classroom, research lab, and clinical space, is essential for our students to acquire key knowledge and skills they need to thrive in the 21st century and engage in critical thinking and inquiry in a broad range of fields including the arts and humanities, social sciences, STEM, and medicine.
We further call on the UC Regents and President Milliken to publicly reject the demands in the “Compact” and “Resolution Agreement” since they are attempts by the federal government to exercise undue influence over aspects of the University’s operation that fall squarely within the purview of the faculty as granted by the UC Regents to the Academic Senate. This includes student admissions, graduation requirements, and the content of classes and other student training opportunities.
The UC Academic Council has already called on the UC Regents and President Milliken to “unequivocally reject governmental demands that compromise institutional autonomy and academic freedom,” and to “formally include the Senate in discussions concerning the terms and parameters of any proposed settlement agreement.” We join Academic Council in this call by asking the UC Regents to publicly reject all current and future demands from the federal government that infringe on academic freedom and our ability to effectively carry out the educational and research missions of our University.
American universities, including those within our system, have been presented with a series of unlawful demands from the federal government that would severely limit academic freedom. For example, the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education“, which demands “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” both baselessly accuses entire academic disciplines of “violence” and infringes on the right of faculty to determine the content of the training that they provide their students in accordance with their discipline. Likewise, by requiring university employees to “abstain from actions or speech relating to society and political events,” the ability of faculty to provide training and conduct research in the full range of content that is relevant to their field without fear of legal repercussion is severely limited, as many fields require discussion of issues that could be construed as “society and political events”. Acquiescence to such demands would not only put universities in legal jeopardy due to the vagueness of these requirements, but it would also amount to a denial of the academic freedom of faculty and academic workers, and their right to have their research and teaching evaluated by their peers rather than by an overreaching federal executive branch.
Similarly, the demands made of UCLA in the “Resolution Agreement Between the US and UCLA” to limit the type of medical care offered at their medical facilities is also an infringement on academic freedom that would negatively impact clinical research and the training of our medical students, residents, and fellows. Clinical faculty should be responsible for determining the training that medical trainees receive in a manner that is informed by professional expertise and the research of peers in the medical community rather than dictated by a political agenda. Likewise, requiring universities to “commit to defining and otherwise interpreting ‘male,’ ‘female,’ ‘woman,’ and ‘man’ according to reproductive function and biological processes” is an infringement of academic freedom because it would limit research and the education of our students and medical trainees with regards to biological concepts, gender studies, and appropriate medical care that inform many diverse fields of study.
These examples are just a few of the ways in which the demands being made by the federal government undermine the academic freedom long established as a necessity for the production of knowledge and innovation. We call on the UC Regents and President Milliken to publicly reject all such demands, present and future, that would infringe on academic freedom, restrict student education and training, stifle the independence of our University, and open the UC to legal risk by allowing the federal government to exercise undue control over the operation of our University.
The values of academic institutions and our democracy should not be up for negotiation. We call on the UC Regents and President Milliken to publicly stand up for the UC, for the faculty, students, and staff, and for the future of higher education in California.
“Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” Full Text
Rejection of Trump Education Compact by MIT, Brown, Penn, USC, UVA, UA, and Dartmouth
Statement by Higher Education Associations In Opposition to Trump Education Compact
AAUP Letter to Office of General Counsel at US Colleges about Illegality of Trump Ed Compact
“Resolution Agreement Between US and UCLA” Full Text (UCLA Demand Letter)