As an alumna (‘77), a lawyer, a Jew and an American, I was baffled when I learned that Stanford had not signed the letter “Call for Constructive Engagement,” published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU). Signed so far by 568 universities, colleges and leaders, the letter constitutes a collective stand against the Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to control and repress the students, faculty and administrations of the country’s institutions of higher learning. Trump’s weapons in this campaign include the illegal abductions of foreign students and the abrupt and massive defunding of university research. I started hunting for an explanation for Stanford’s silence.

At a meeting with the Stanford Faculty Senate, University president Jonathan Levin ’94 offered a defense of Stanford’s failure to sign on with the hundreds of other higher education signatories. Referring to the AACU letter, Levin told the Faculty Senate: “I don’t disagree with the sentiments in that letter, I just prefer not to sign open letters in general. I think it’s good practice at a university for people to formulate and express their own views.” Levin also seemed to suggest that verbally supporting Harvard’s resistance to the White House’s demands was enough to defend its students and faculty against censorship, abduction and defunding. To his credit, Stanford has also joined several lawsuits challenging White House cuts to Stanford’s research funding.  

I agree with President Levin that “it’s good practice at a university for people to formulate and express their own views.” But that has nothing to do with acknowledging the vital importance of concerted and collective action in the fight now underway across the country over fundamental principles of academic freedom. This is not a partisan issue, and there can be no honest debate on this fact: the Trump administration is weaponizing the considerable power of the federal government to dismantle, intimidate and domesticate this country’s universities and colleges. In doing so, Trump and his cabinet are demeaning and flouting the rule of law.

I am asking that Stanford do the right thing and sign the AACU letter. I make that request not on the basis of any specialized expertise, but because of an urgent need to do everything possible to vigorously challenge Trump’s assault on our fundamental democratic institutions that is, at this point, self-evident. I am not suggesting that signing the AACU letter is without risk. I understand that President Levin and the trustees have concerns about possible retribution by the Trump administration in the form of further funding cuts. But as Columbia University has shown, a university’s attempts at appeasing Trump by complying with illegal and unprecedented demands may not protect its federal funding.

Moreover, there is no real ethical wiggle room in this situation. Silence and failure to use the full extent of Stanford’s power and prestige to resist an attack on the core principles of the academic enterprise is a kind of complicity. 

The AACU is still accepting new signatures to its “Call for Constructive Engagement.” I hope that anyone reading this letter will join me in demanding that President Levin reconsider his refusal to sign the letter. If there is anyone interested in helping circulate a formal petition to that effect, I can be reached at the email below. By signing, Stanford will go on the record as joining hundreds of other colleges and universities in robust resistance to the Trump administration’s attacks on academic freedom and fundamental Constitutional rights. Collective statements by institutional actors have a persuasive and political power that individual statements cannot.

Janice Bressler received her BA from Stanford in 1977. She can be reached at [email protected]