The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Michael A. Chihak
Federal officials making a bald-faced attack on the integrity, policies and finances of the University of Arizona must be turned back, regardless of consequences.
Letters from the White House and the U.S. education secretary went to the UA and eight other universities last week seeking commitments to federal dictates, including a “welcoming environment for conservatives,” bans on using race and sex in admissions and hiring, limits on foreign students and a five-year tuition freeze.
This “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is pressure for the UA and the other schools to adhere to the president’s political agenda.
In an Oct. 2 story, The New York Times said that the letters were accompanied by “a 10-page ‘compact’ that serves as a sort of priority statement for the administration’s education goals – the most comprehensive accounting to date of what (the president) aims to achieve from an unparalleled, monthslong pressure campaign on academia.”
The payoff is a bribe: “multiple positive benefits,” including access to federal money and looser controls on its use, the letters said. At issue could be the UA’s $470 million in federal grants and $70 million in student financial aid via Pell Grants.
University President Suresh Garimella mentioned those figures in an April letter to faculty defending his quick capitulation to federal orders to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs and change the university’s approach to non-discrimination.
He even wrote a letter to the president of the Arizona Senate listing steps he was taking. That came as the Legislature worked on the state budget, including state universities’ funding. The UA ended up with $255.2 million in state general fund money for the main campus, 1% lower than last year and 15.7% lower than two years ago.
No evidence exists of a connection between the funding and Garimella communicating about his compliance.
Now, new demands are on the table. If Garimella folds again, it will mean the end of the University of Arizona as we know it.
Governance will be given over to federal administrators who could dictate policies, curriculum, even what is taught in classrooms, researched in labs and stocked at the libraries.
Think there is no such danger? That’s naive or disingenuous, on two counts. First, what the president has done already in unconstitutional and unlawful actions on many fronts to push his agenda is evidence he will continue. Second, the administration is attacking what it considers a weak spot, that Garimella is seen as compliant because he rolled over once.
Mary Mailman, White House senior adviser for special projects and one of the signers of the letters, said as much in telling The Wall Street Journal that the UA and the other schools were chosen “because (we) believed they are, or could be, ‘good actors.’”
Is Garimella going to be one of the “good actors”? Or will he stand for integrity?
He may be feeling squeezed because he needs funding, especially after budget cuts and layoffs in the last year. On the other hand, he already knows the university community’s thoughts, based on a May vote in which 91% of nearly 1,000 faculty members urged him to stand firm against federal demands.
It all is troubling, yet one significant impact could come from a five-year tuition freeze. With first-year enrollment down 19% this fall and demographics not favoring increases in the next five years, a freeze of the current $13,573 tuition could throw the university into another financial crisis.
President Garimella and Board of Regents: Stand up and repel this attack.
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
