This newsletter is my part of an ongoing conversation among colleagues who’ve had a rough week. I share two or three pieces of the puzzle that feel are most important, hazard a guess about what to expect next, and offer at least one useful thing to do.
Hello friends,
We have been worried about academic freedom since January. And this week, after months of advocacy by community colleges, then Wesleyan, Georgetown, and Princeton, it feels like we may be at a tipping point. On Monday, Harvard rejected the administration’s list of demands, earning a surge in donations, as well as support from former President Obama, faculty at Yale, and the president and provost of Stanford.
It’s making me think about a certain kind of movie scene that always gets me: at the last moment, when all hope seems lost, impossible odds are overcome after more heroes arrive to join the fight. Whether it’s T'Challa stepping out of that golden portal as the Avengers assemble or Gandalf arriving at first light on the fifth day, this trope is oh-so-familiar if still somehow exhilarating. But I have little time for superheroes or wizards right now. I am not willing to pin my hopes on the highest-powered attorneys of the wealthiest institutions in the world.
Instead, I keep thinking about Casablanca. More than anything else, it’s the scene where the patrons in Rick’s Cafe sing La Marseillaise. I remember that Casablanca was filmed in the summer of 1942, a summer that is hard for me to imagine. The American government was launching the Manhattan Project. The German government was beginning to systematically gas Jewish people at Auschwitz. And on the Casablanca set, nearly all of the cast and extras were refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe. In many ways, they were the lucky ones. “Lucky” to have survived imprisonment and concentration camps. Lucky their scramble for visas worked out. Watch them as they sing - the actors, not their characters - many are crying. “Aux armes, citoyens, formez vos bataillons.” They don’t know what the outcome will be, only what the fight is for.
This was week 13. Let’s face it together.
The government continues to be hollowed out and weaponized. Science and higher ed are most impacted by staffing cuts, funding cuts, and a wicked combination of censorship and disinformation.
The administration seems to be moving to strip some climate and environment nonprofits of their tax-exempt status next week. The rumors suggest the actions would be scheduled for Earth Day (Tuesday), and would also target specific funders. Expect immediate legal challenges if that happens. An even more frightening prospect for Tuesday has to do with the upcoming report weighing in on whether the President should invoke the Insurrection Act.
I think the best way to cope with the uncertainty and anxiety of these unknowns is to do what you can. There are more protests and days of action happening across the country. If you feel drawn to in-person gatherings, start local. Your university AAUP, SURJ chapter, or Indivisible group is almost certainly looking for your support. And support is needed in so many ways - sometimes it’s showing up, sometimes it’s speaking up. Maybe you focus on explaining to the community what actions leadership is taking, or maybe you activate alumni networks, like MIT president Sally Kornbluth did this week.
Since I started writing this debrief a few hours ago, the administration has characterized the letter it sent to Harvard last week as an “unauthorized” mistake. Despite claiming that the letter should not have been sent, the administration has not withdrawn it. Rather, it has moved ahead on attempting to freeze $2.2 billion in grants and revoke the university’s tax-exempt status, while simultaneously describing the school's response as an “overblown… victimhood campaign.”
This particular form of rhetoric pushes me to my limit, so I’ll keep this short and say: we need to take care of ourselves and each other, while we figure out how to rebuke and rebuff the daily onslaught. Care can take all kinds of forms, but mental health is an urgent priority for many people in my circles. Whether you spend half an hour exploring the evidence-based approach to reducing stigma within academia offered by Dragonfly Mental Health, commit to an intensive Psychological First Aid module, or choose something entirely different, it’s clear that we must focus on the long haul.
To do that, I invite you to join me for one or both of our new regular events. These are every Monday at 7-8 pm ET / 4-5pm PT.
We can’t know what the outcome will be, only what the fight is for. So in the meantime, keep singing.
Liz