Top professors urge University of Arizona president to fight Trump orders

More than 60 top professors — Regents and Distinguished professors — at the University of Arizona are urging UA President Suresh Garimella to “defend the values of our university system, which are under existential threat” from Trump administration orders.

“It is imperative that universities present a united front against threats to our firm commitment to academic freedom, and the rights guaranteed to all of us — faculty, staff, and students alike — by the US Constitution: freedom of speech, equal protection, and due process under the law. We urge you to issue a statement affirming the University of Arizona’s commitment to these principles,” they wrote in a letter to Garimella.

The letter did not mention the Trump administration by name but clearly referred to its actions since the Jan. 20 inauguration making various ideological demands of universities and pulling or threatening to pull federal funding.

UA spokesperson Mitch Zak responded Monday: “President Garimella has received the letter and respects these distinguished faculty members. We’re all united by a strong commitment to our students and to the mission and values that guide the university.”

Among the prominent faculty members, including emeritus or at least partially retired professors who retain their UA titles, signing the letter are: Marcia Rieke and George Rieke, famed for their key work on the Webb Space Telescope; Leslie Tolbert, a neuroscientist who is a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers; Thomas W. Swetnam of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research; Robert Glennon, a national expert on water policy and law; sociology professor Celestino Fernandez, who was UA vice president for academic outreach and international affairs; Toni Massaro, executive director of the UA Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice; and Chris Impey, associate co-department head of Steward Observatory.

“Promising steps have already been taken by others, including the President of the AAU (Association of American Universities). Recognizing its duties and defending its values, Harvard stated forcefully that it ‘will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.’ The University of Massachusetts system has called for Land Grant Universities, nationwide, to stand together. A few days ago, the Big 10 universities made similar commitments. We believe the Big 12 should do the same,” they wrote.

“We urge you and your presidential colleagues to act collectively to: Defend the core values on which our universities are based; combat unlawful conditions being placed on federal support; protect students and international scholars, many of whom are living in fear of deportation; engage the public, and especially alumni, in supporting the value of research universities to the health of the state and nation; devise ways to sustain our most vital assets should the fight turn out to be a protracted one.”

“This is not a fight we can dodge, or ignore. The matter is urgent, and everything we hold dear is at stake. We must act now! We look forward to hearing from you about how the U of A will put itself on the right side of history at this critical moment. When you do so you can count on us to be by your side, supporting your defense of the core values of our institution.”

Other Regents and Distinguished professors signing the letter: Alan Newell, Peter Strittmatter, Lynn Nadel, Donata Vercelli, John Hildebrand, Malcolm Hughes, Steve Schwartz, Marv Slepian, Bruce Tabashnik, Judith K. Brown, Robert A. Williams, Sama Alshaibi, Gail Burd, Ronald Breiger, David D. Breshears, Ricardo Valerdi, Victor Baker, Price Fishback, William McCallum, Janko Z. Nikolich, John W. Olsen, Lucy Ziurys, John Allen, George Davis, Alison Deming, Carol Barnes, Albrecht Classen, Mary Stiner, Connie Woodhouse, Rebecca Tsosie, Joellen Russell, Jeanne E. Pemberton, Frederick Kiefer, Judith Bronstein, Carol Bender, Dennis Zaritsky, Jerzy Rozenblit, Jean-Luc Bredas, Takeshi Inomata, David Pietz, J. Jefferson Reid, Alfred S. McEwen, Oscar Martinez, Marcela Vásquez-León, Barbara J. Mills, Mark Nichter, Todd Fletcher, Neal Armstrong, Tom Sheridan, Etta Kralovec, Chris Segrin, Kelly Potter, and “5 signers who requested to remain anonymous out of fear.”

In general, Garimella has responded so far to Trump administration orders by signaling immediate compliance in some areas and choosing not to speak publicly in others.

For instance, under threat of losing state as well as federal funding, he sent a letter to Arizona’s Republican Senate president listing numerous steps he’s taking to shut down diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility or DEIA activities the Trump administration deems to be illegal discrimination.

Garimella has not responded, other than to say through Zak that the university appreciates the feedback, to a petition signed by more than 3,300 faculty, students, staff and alumni, including anonymous signers, urging him to reinstate DEIA statements and resources despite Trump’s order to remove them.

Zak did not respond Monday to several questions from the Arizona Daily Star including whether Garimella intends to respond more specifically to the professors’ letter through a meeting with Regents professors, at the UA’s next Faculty Senate meeting, or in a written response to the faculty members.

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Leila Hudson, chair of the UA faculty, said Monday of the professors’ letter: “I could not be prouder and more impressed with this collective statement by our most distinguished faculty colleagues. This group, usually consumed with their academic excellence taking the time and effort to come together to speak up for our principles and values, to give voice to what most if not all faculty are feeling inspires all of us.

“Appeasement and bending the knee to the ideological politicization of engines of our states’ prosperity and future is not the way. Silencing ourselves and stifling the constitutional and academic freedom that is our students’ patrimony is not the way. Bravo to these academic leaders!” Hudson said.

Fishback, a Regents professor in economics who signed the message to Garimella, said, “The letter asks the president to reach out to presidents of other major universities to form a large group of universities who respond together as a group to the president’s (Trump’s) policies. That group effort will be more successful than each university protesting on its own.”

In Arizona, the Regents professor designation “serves as recognition of the highest academic merit and is awarded to faculty members who have made a unique contribution to the quality of the university through distinguished accomplishments in teaching scholarship, research, or creative work.”

The UA professors’ letter refers to the Association of American Universities, which joined with the American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities to file suit aiming to halt a proposed funding cut to universities by the U.S. Department of Energy.

It also refers to faculty at the University of Massachusetts calling for a compact of 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 UA is Arizona’s only land grant university. The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities describes land grant status as: “an institution designated by its state legislature or Congress” to receive land and certain benefits under federal laws in return for providing a practical education to the working classes, among other missions.

In the Big 10 action the professors’ letter refers to, the faculty senates in the Big Ten Academic Alliance are creating a “mutual defense compact” to fight against President Donald Trump’s “legal, financial and political attacks on academic freedom and the missions of universities.” University leaders there are being asked to “commit meaningful funding” to a defense fund the universities would use to defend each other in court. The UA is in the separate Big 12 conference.

The Wall Street Journal reports the Trump administration plans to pull another $1 billion in federal funding from Harvard University, this time targeting health research, on top of an existing $2.2 billion cut, after the university publicized, and rejected, a demand letter from federal officials. Harvard said the Trump administration demanded control of its student body, faculty and curriculum, and the university filed suit Monday challenging the legality of the federal funding freeze. Trump has also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

Harvard has the largest endowment of any university in the world, at more than $53.2 billion, but that is intended as a long-term investment and it would not be simple for the university to use it to compensate for federal funding cuts, the Harvard Crimson has written.

UA, meanwhile, is working to eliminate a $65 million budget deficit this fiscal year. UA Chief Financial Officer John Arnold told the Faculty Senate recently that the federal “attack on higher education” has created risks and uncertainties for UA’s next budget year.

Universities including UA have had various research grants paused or terminated by the Trump administration. UA under Garimella has created a fund to bridge those funding gaps.

The Trump administration has withheld government funding from Harvard, Columbia and other universities in response to their tolerance of pro-Palestinian demonstrations it claims were antisemitic.

The federal government under Trump has also detained with intent to deport students at certain universities who led pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. The administration also is revoking visas of international students who have civil or criminal allegations or violations in their past, including traffic citations. UA administrators have declined to confirm visa revocations of UA students or to comment on such cases, citing privacy.