As other schools band together against Trump threats, the University of Minnesota keeps a low profile

WASHINGTON The University of Minnesota swept up like other schools in the maelstrom of Trump administration policies they say erode academic freedom is undergoing intense internal debate about what to do about it The questions that have pitted students and faculty members against the university s administration are whether and how the state s largest institution of higher learning should fight back Higher coaching speedily became one of President Trump s prime targets after he was sworn in to his second term His administration cut off funding for schools that did not comply with its demands and launched investigations into dozens of schools including the University of Minnesota which is the target of probes into alleged antisemitism and race-based admission policies Deciding there was strength in numbers hundreds of college presidents and leaders have signed an American Association of Colleges and Universities AACU letter that decried the unprecedented executive overreach and political interference Related Trump How the president s first days have impacted Minnesota The leaders of about a dozen Minnesota schools including the presidents of Gustavus Adolphus College Carleton College the University of St Thomas Minneapolis College of Arts and Design and Mitchell Hamline School of Law signed on to the letter which as of Tuesday had more than signatures Yet the University of Minnesota s new president Rebecca Cunningham took a pass The university has not responded to several requests for information about the school s decision to reject the AACU s effort and on other initiatives in which the nation s schools are trying to organize a defense to the Trump administration s actions For instance during a Zoom call Thursday the university senate voted overwhelmingly for a resolution to join a Big Ten effort led by Rutgers University that would establish a joint defense pact against Trump function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a input datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a figures datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a details datawrapper-height t px r style height d Those who ve spoken with Cunningham about the issue say she s taken a neutral and non-committal stance on the Big Ten resolution and is in general trying to avoid conflict and involvement of the school in politics On a recording of the Zoom call Cunningham spoke of her general wariness toward making statements You will not tend to see me making statements first of all just to join on because other people are making them she explained A lot of backchannel communication The school s Board of Regents has also taken a keep your head down approach At its last meeting in March the regents approved a resolution that explained all official communications from the university must be approved by the president The resolution also says the university will not comment on issues that address matters of society concern unless it affects the concerns of the university Faculty and aspirant members of the university senate who voted overwhelmingly for the Big Ten resolution last week reported there must be more of an effort to combat Trump administration policies Related Lawmakers vexed and divided on funding Minnesota schools The initiative would allow the Big schools to pool information for a NATO-like compact that would defend administration attacks on a school by funding lawsuits and information campaigns about the dangers posed by the administration on free speech academic excellence and scientific and diagnostic research University senates at more than half a dozen schools including the University of Nebraska University of Michigan and University of Maryland have approved similar resolutions asking their administrators to join the effort Something has to be done mentioned Rachna Shah a professor of supply chains and operations at the university s Carlson School of Management What is happening with the Trump administration imposes extreme costs to the university Chase Krug Shah is concerned that the threat of losing federal funding is serious More than billion or about of the school s revenue came from the federal establishment in Shah disclosed it is likely that a lot of back-channel conversations are going on with associations that represent higher instruction But she reported that if the Trump administration continues to target the nation s universities and colleges and she thinks that will happen more forceful and clearer statements may be needed Chase Krug a -year old graduate participant who is also a member of the university senate noted there are behind-the-scene efforts to lobby Cunningham to assistance the Big initiative Why are we not leading in this space he required Why are we having to push so hard when the administration should be protecting us Yet Krug has doubts Cunningham will allow the school to join the effort I think she believes it would put an extra target on the university he noted function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a figures datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a content datawrapper-height for var r i r e i i if r contentWindow a source var d a statistics datawrapper-height t px r style height d Senate member V V Ganeshananthan an English professor who introduced the resolution commented it s an opportunity for the new university administration to engage with its faculty and students in a meaningful way Ganeshananthan also disclosed it s worth debating whether the demands made by the Trump administration which include eliminating diversity equity and inclusion DEI policies and programs from campus should be satisfied to safeguard federal funding That s because schools that band together are largely acknowledging they are not safe under Trump regardless of whether institutions comply with administration demands Ganeshananthan noted The resolution asks Cunningham to assume a leadership role in the Big Ten effort Be it certainly resolved that this resolution be transmitted to the leadership of all Big Ten universities and their respective governing boards and shared governance bodies and that the President of the University of Minnesota take a leading role in convening a summit of Big Ten academic and legal leadership to initiate the implementation of this Compact the resolution noted Related Ellison sues Trump over end to citizens school diversity programs Law professor Matthew Bodie one of the co-sponsors of the resolution revealed he understood Cunningham s hesitancy in getting involved in a very constituents pushback on the Trump administration Rebecca Cunningham He explained since Cunningham is a former clinician and former vice president for research at the University of Michigan she is particularly sensitive to the threats of a cutoff of Department of Soundness and Human Arrangement grants which are now the subject to several lawsuits I understand her not getting into a fight if it can be avoided Bodie explained But I certainly hope that after she considers the resolution she ll aid it Harvard creates momentum AACU President Lynn Pasquerella mentioned the idea for a report against the political pressure Trump has placed on the nation s colleges was born during a conversation she had with Laurie Patton president of the American Association of Arts and Science during a convention in Florida We wondered why more people weren t speaking out Pasquerella stated She reported she held two listening sessions with dozens of university presidents in April and drafted a comment to defend academic freedom Particular people longed it to be bolder others requested it to be more conservative she disclosed Several university presidents declared they could not sign on because of the politics of their states The resolution which initially had a little over signers was made population last week right after Harvard University which was threatened with a cutoff of billion in federal money decided to sue the Trump administration instead of acceding to its demands V V Ganeshananthan The demands included auditing Harvard s professors for plagiarism and appointing an outside overseer to ensure the school s faculty and departments were viewpoint diverse Pasquerella declared the AACU was not influenced by Harvard s behavior but it certainly helped catalyze the effort and create momentum When one university is attacked we all are attacked she reported The post As other schools band together against Trump threats the University of Minnesota keeps a low profile appeared first on MinnPost