This commentary is by three members of the UVM Palestine Solidarity Caucus. Antonio Golán is a lecturer in community development and applied economics, Evelyn Huffine is an undergraduate student, and Jonathan Shaffer is an assistant professor of sociology.
The current search for the next president of University of Vermont comes at a moment of grave threat to free and open inquiry, research, discourse and learning at universities and colleges across the country. We must be clear-eyed: President-elect Donald Trump and his incoming administration view all forms of free speech, student organizing, efforts to advance social justice and programs to protect the wellbeing of marginalized people as a threat to their far-right agenda. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance was unambiguous when he said that “if any of us want to do the things that we want to do for our country, we have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities.”
The incoming Trump administration has already indicated that these attacks will almost certainly involve continued crackdowns on student protesters, attempts to deport international students, attacks on the rights and protections for trans people, the gutting of civil rights protections, and the elimination of programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education.
President-elect Trump told donors on May 14th that “any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.” Universities across the country are already seeing humanities and critical social science courses axed from general education curricula and course offerings. Faculty are being suspended and even fired for voicing Pro-Palestinian views informed by their own research and expertise.
The University of Vermont has a rich history of social justice education, protest action and commitment to the protection of free speech stretching from the great pedagogue and philosopher John Dewey’s education reforms in the early 1900s, to the university’s current efforts to care “for people and planet,” to the Palestine solidarity encampments last spring.
The University of Vermont has long claimed to uphold the common ground values of respect, integrity, innovation, openness, justice and responsibility. However, the suspension of UVM’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter last semester demonstrates that the administration may be willing to limit these values when pressure comes from Washington and far-right groups.
The next president of UVM must be prepared to stand up and fight for the freedoms, protections and programs that the university claims to value. This is why we are calling upon the UVM trustees and the presidential search advisory committee to commit to the following concrete action items:
- Ensure that all final candidates being considered for the role explicitly commit to using their full power to protect vulnerable students and staff at UVM, especially the immigrant, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ community members that the incoming Trump administration has promised to persecute.
- Ensure that all final candidates being considered for the role explicitly commit to protecting free speech, political expression, student organizing and other forms of demonstration as important components of university life. Candidates must also recognize that protests and criticism of Israel’s genocide and occupation in Palestine are fundamentally protected by free speech rights.
- Ensure that all final candidates being considered for the role explicitly commit to maintain funding, coursework and academic programing — especially within the humanities and critical social sciences — that are likely to be attacked by the incoming administration.
We recognize that this is a moment of extreme uncertainty and risk for higher education, let alone for our democratic institutions, our most marginalized neighbors, and the people around the world facing the combined effects of imperialism, genocide, ecological collapse and climate change.
We also stand by the hopeful belief that a free university is essential to building and protecting a free democracy. This is why the next leader of UVM must have the political courage, moral conviction and constitutional strength to defend our common ground values even when — especially when — they are threatened by powerful forces emanating from Washington, DC.
This is a crucial moment and we call on the trustees and the search advisory committee to ensure that candidates and ultimately the next president of UVM are ready for the challenging struggles that lie ahead.
