University President Jonathan Levin ’94 declared his and Provost Jenny Martinez’s commitment to academic freedom and announced that Stanford has expanded this fall’s first-year class by 150 students at Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting.

Levin emphasized the importance of the University’s “fundamental values of academic inquiry and openness,” citing campus initiatives to promote civil discourse such as the Civic, Liberal and Global Education (COLLEGE) program and the Stanford Civics Initiative and ePluribus, a discussion-based civics initiative spearheaded by Levin and Martinez.

“Academic freedom is an essential part of [the University’s] contract,” Levin said. “It allows universities to question orthodoxy and go against prevailing political winds, and it requires protection against internal and external coercion.”

Levin criticized the federal government’s cuts to research funding in higher education, saying that Stanford researchers are “standing on the precipice” of breakthroughs in fields such as cancer science, robotics, data science and machine learning. New policies, including NIH funding cuts and other proposed reductions in academic research, could hinder these developments, Levin argued.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration froze $1 billion in funding for Cornell and $780 million for Northwestern. These cuts came amid threats to funding at other universities, including Brown, Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton.

Electrical engineering professor H.-S. Philip Wong asked Levin to reassure the Senate members that he will pursue collaboration with other universities to push back against the Trump administration’s recent policies, rather than waiting until Stanford is directly attacked. The University is “talking extensively to the leadership of other universities” about research funding, Levin answered. 

“The threat of removing funding from universities that house some of the world’s greatest researchers has the potential to damage their long-term standing and our prospects for growth,” Levin said. “This time is a test of our ability to work together with other universities and with the country to chart a course of continued excellence marked by enduring principles.” 

Following Levin’s statement, English professor Elaine Treharne cited a petition on behalf of a group of Stanford faculty members in defense of “free inquiry and debate.” Treharne argued that Stanford should invoke an exception to its neutrality policy to issue a statement against federal actions that chill free speech.

Treharne proposed that the statement defend transgender students, international students and programs in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (FGSS) and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE).

 “The present crisis is a direct attack on free inquiry and debate, and on the tenets of free expression in general,” Treharne said. “We must be allowed to question policies about the government without fear of reprisal.”

In response, Levin cited his and Martinez’s March 31 letter to the Stanford community, which affirmed their commitment to research and academic freedom. Levin reiterated that he and Martinez consider it best for the University not to “issue many specific statements on a variety of issues, but rather to issue a set of general principles and act on them in a consistent manner as they come up.”

Comparative literature professor David Palumbo-Liu raised an objection to Levin’s statement, calling for more concrete action by University leadership to defend faculty members and investigate threats against them.

“We are faced by an all-out attack by the federal government,” Palumbo-Liu said. “University leadership must investigate threats, provide security and protect those putting on events from attack. I ask that you make a policy that clearly states you will not tolerate those kinds of infractions.”

Levin repeated his and Martinez’s commitment to protecting free speech on campus, stating that the University “doesn’t cancel events because they are controversial” and referencing a letter in which Martinez elaborated on free speech after the controversy over Judge Kyle Duncan’s 2023 visit to Stanford.

Levin announced that the class of 2029 admitted approximately 150 more first-year and transfer students than in previous years. He also shared the creation of a new committee to investigate expanding the size of the undergraduate class. 

“In the last fifty years, everything at Stanford has grown… but not the number of undergraduate students,” Levin said. “Some growth is overdue, and it’s possible without changing the fundamental character of the education we provide.” He added that this change will allow more young people to access a Stanford education: “The fact of the matter is that we turn away many qualified students, and it’s in our capability to educate more of them.”