Illinois State University President Aondover Tarhule and Illinois Wesleyan University President Sheahon Zenger are among over 400 college and university leaders who’ve co-signed a public statement opposing what they call “unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”
The statement was issued through the American Association of Colleges and Universities. It comes as the Trump administration has attacked and threatened to withhold funding from universities across the country, hoping to get them to comply with the president's political agenda.
“As leaders of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies, we speak with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education,” the statement said. “We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding.”
The statement notes that colleges and universities are diverse in purpose but share “the essential freedom to determine, on academic grounds, whom to admit and what is taught, how, and by whom.”
“Our colleges and universities share a commitment to serve as centers of open inquiry where, in their pursuit of truth, faculty, students, and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship, or deportation,” it says.
The statement calls for “constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic,” and that “the price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society.”
The Trump administration has confronted colleges and universities across the country, ostensibly over their diversity, equity and inclusivity policies and allegations of antisemitism. Some are now pushing back.
Harvard University has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, arguing the government's actions, including freezing more than $2.2 billion in federal funding, violate the First Amendment and don't follow legal procedures, NPR reported. The Trump administration accuses Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students. But Harvard's lawsuit questions how freezing research funds will further the administration's goal of eliminating antisemitism on campus.
This is already playing out in Bloomington-Normal. An unknown number of ISU international students have had their visas revoked. Illinois Wesleyan University is among at least 60 higher education institutions that have been urged by the U.S. Department of Education to cooperate with ongoing investigations into alleged actions of "antisemitic discrimination and harassment.”
Also signing the statement were other Illinois higher education leaders, including:
- Raj Echambadi, President, Illinois Institute of Technology
- Jay D. Gatrell, President, Eastern Illinois University
- Lisa C. Freeman, President, Northern Illinois University
- Janet Gooch, Chancellor, University of Illinois at Springfield
- Robert J. Jones, Chancellor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Katrina Bell Jordan, President, Northeastern Illinois University
- Timothy Killeen, President, University of Illinois System
- Daniel Mahony, President, Southern Illinois University
- Marie Lynn Miranda, Chancellor, University of Illinois Chicago
- Michael Schill, President, Northwestern University
- Zaldwaynaka Scott, President, Chicago State University
- Mark C. Reed, President, Loyola University Chicago
- C. Andrew McGadney, President, Knox College
- Andrea Kathryn Talentino, President, Augustana College
