UC Berkeley faculty have called on University of California President Michael Drake to protect political speech and academic freedom across the state’s premier higher-education system and challenge the Trump administration’s “unprecedented attack” on higher education.
UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate, comprised of campus faculty, approved the resolution last week. The resolution was signed by nearly 50 faculty members from academic departments across Cal.
The resolution comes as Berkeley braces for potential demands from the Trump administration related to diversity initiatives. Universities, faculty and students across the country have pushed back against President Donald Trump’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and pro-Palestine student protests and his threats to cut universities’ federal funding unless leaders comply with his administration’s demands.
More than 500 university and college leaders across the country have signed a letter opposing the “unprecedented government overreach and political interference…endangering American higher education.” UC Berkeley’s chancellor, Richard Lyons, and UC President Drake signed the letter, as well as leaders from UC Santa Cruz, UC San Francisco, San Jose State University, De Anza College and Santa Clara University.
Stanford University and the California State University system did not sign the letter, while some individual CSU campuses did.
Berkeley faculty said it was important to call for additional protections and a UC system-wide commitment to push back against the Trump administration before the campus receives its own version of the demand letters sent to Harvard University and Columbia University. The letters to the schools threatened to slash federal funding if campus leaders did not cut diversity programs, tighten protest rules, ramp up student discipline and reform admissions and hiring practices.
UC Berkeley is the subject of several federal investigations. The campus is one of 60 universities facing civil rights investigations into antisemitism on their campuses and one of 45 universities being investigated by the Trump administration for allegedly using racial preferences in education programs and activities. The Trump administration also subpoenaed the University of California for information about hundreds of faculty members who participated in political activities regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
The university is also one of 10 campuses expecting a visit from the Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force. And Friday, the U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the university’s foreign funding disclosures, following the department’s similar investigation of Harvard University.
The faculty resolution insists that the University of California and UC President Drake challenge “illegal demands” by the federal government rather than accept them.
“Recent events at other institutions have shown that attempts to appease or negotiate away universities’ and scholars’ academic and political freedom lead only to more severe unconstitutional demands and extortion,” the resolution states.
“The University of California Office of the President greatly values the input of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate,” the university said in a statement Tuesday. “The University will continue to advocate on behalf of UC’s research, teaching and public service mission in the face of federal funding challenges.”
The resolution also demands UC fund legal aid for students and scholars who have had their visas revoked. In recent weeks, the Trump administration had revoked thousands of international students’ visas across the country – including at least two dozen at UC Berkeley – but reversed course Friday, reinstating students’ status, at least temporarily.
UC Berkeley faculty also called on Drake to ensure that the University of California would not share the personal data of students, faculty and staff and appeal any federal order to comply, as well as limit any university policies that affect personal information and could reveal academic or political activities. The faculty resolution also insists UC rejects any demands from the Trump administration to ban masks at political events, close diversity, equity and inclusion programs or adopt a stricter definition of antisemitism under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
The resolution also asks UC to work with other universities and colleges to counter the Trump administration’s threats to schools across the country.
Originally Published: