AMHERST — Faculty at the University of Massachusetts are calling on Chancellor Javier Reyes and President Martin Meehan to form a compact with the 250 land grant and public universities across the country to fight Trump administration actions impacting academic freedom and free expression, including politically motivated detentions of students and faculty and visa revocations for some international students.

The vote in favor of the “Resolution to Establish Mutual Academic Defense Compacts” at last Thursday’s meeting of the Faculty Senate came a day before Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell led a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s “ideological deportation policy.”

Additionally, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem demanding answers about why visas for international students at colleges and universities in his district “were revoked without notice, explanation or due process.”

For the faculty, the resolution calls on Reyes and Meehan to formally propose and help establish both the “Public and Land Grant University Mutual Academic Defense Compact” and the “Massachusetts Higher Education Mutual Academic Defense Compact,” which asks that institutions “commit meaningful support — financial, legal, organizational and/ or strategic — to a shared distributed defense infrastructure designed to respond immediately and collectively to attacks by the governmental actors on any member institution.”

This would allow legal representation, public communication, filing of amicus briefs, legislative advocacy and rapid response research.

The resolution notes that the 250 universities that could be part of the compact represent more than a million faculty and staff and around 6.6 million undergraduate and graduate students: “This resolution seeks common ground across institutions uniting in a common defense to collectively safeguard their shared values of academic freedom, free expression, democratic governance, civic responsibility, scientific discovery and the pursuit of knowledge.”

Adopting the resolution comes in the midst of 13 international students at UMass having their visas revoked.

Anthony Paik, a professor of Sociology and the secretary for the Faculty Senate, helped a faculty group put together the resolution, which is similar to one adopted by faculty at Rutgers University. That then led to the Rules Committee agreeing to put the resolution on the Senate agenda for a vote.

Now both Reyes and Meehan should be aware of the resolution. “It is our hope that they will continue to build networks, informally and formally, and cooperate with public land-grants across the nation,” Paik said.

Late Monday, the university released a statement expressing its values in response to the faculty resolution:

“We are grateful for the faculty’s engagement on these issues and efforts to preserve the mission of higher education at-large. We are reviewing the resolution. UMass has stood alongside its partners across the UMass system, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, the Five College Consortium, and more in advancing and defending the shared principles that shape our institutions.  We are working closely with the UMass system, the governor, the attorney general, and legislators at both the state and federal level to ensure that we remain true to our mission and that our legacy as a global campus lives on. 

AG lawsuit

On Friday, Campbell filed an amicus brief in American Association of University Professors, et al., v. Marco Rubio, et al. in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts that supports a challenge to what is being called the Trump administration’s ideological deportation policy, arguing that it violates the First Amendment and irreparably harms colleges and universities, public health and safety, and freedom of religious worship.

Campbell explained that this policy targets and punishes noncitizens with lawful status, especially college students and faculty who express political beliefs with which the administration disagrees.

“No student should ever live in fear of detention or deportation for what they believe or express. School campuses are not places where young people should be silenced, targeted or made to feel unsafe,” Campbell said in a statement. “I am proud to defend the rights of our international students and faculty who add to the rich dialogue on our campuses and to our global competitiveness as a nation.”

The lawsuit argues that Trump’s orders direct federal agencies to vet foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States based on ideological grounds rather than on direct safety threats and, direct federal agencies to investigate, detain, and deport noncitizen students and faculty who engage in political speech with which the administration disagrees.

The lawsuit cites the administration revoking more than 800 visas of noncitizen students, visitors, and residents, including many revocations based on protected expression, and specifically addresses the March 25 arrest and detainment of Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, whose immigration status was revoked without her knowledge.

McGovern’s letter

In addition to the 13 UMass students with revoked visas, McGovern’s letter states that in his congressional district international students at both Clark University and Worcester Pol ytechnic Institute also had visas revoked.

“These actions appear to be politically motivated and constitutionally suspect, raising serious concerns about the weaponization of our immigration system to intimidate and harass students, teachers, and institutions of higher education based on their political views,” McGovern wrote.

McGovern’s communication states that revoking visas without warning or due process could reduce the opportunity for the United  States to attract researchers and experts from around the world, noting that the students bring an estimated $413.5 million to the congressional district’s economy.

In his letter, McGovern posed several questions seeking clarity on the reasons for the visa revocations, the lack of notice provided to institutions, and the legal authority under which these actions were taken. He requested a response within a week.

“It is unconstitutional, unconscionable, and unprecedented that the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security appear to be targeting and punishing students based on their political beliefs or national origin,” McGovern wrote.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.