Oregon college presidents join national move denouncing ‘political interference’ at U.S. colleges

This article was originally published by the Salem Reporter and is reprinted here with permission. 

Presidents of Willamette University and Chemeketa Community College joined more than 200 college leaders across the U.S. signing a letter Tuesday denouncing “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” in higher education.

“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,” the letter read. It was titled “A Call for Constructive Engagement.”

The letter, published by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, comes as the Trump administration has threatened to withdraw or freeze billions in research funding from universities, including at Harvard. The administration has maintained the universities being targeted have failed to protect Jewish students from harassment.

Jessica Howard of Chemeketa Community College was the only president of a public college in Oregon listed among the signers as of Tuesday. President Steve Thorsett of Willamette University also signed, joining the presidents of Reed College and Lewis & Clark College, both small liberal arts colleges in the Portland area.

Howard said she was invited to sign through an email list and was motivated by the sudden efforts to cancel research funding.

“It’s very concerning to me that the research that American higher education provides that drives forward innovations in health care, for example, and many other fields … the idea that that would be abruptly ceased without a process and a deep understanding of the consequences is really concerning,” she said.

Signatories include presidents of elite universities like Harvard and Yale, state schools, technical colleges and community colleges across the U.S. The letter says signers “reject the coercive use of public research funding.”

Visas for international students have also been abruptly revoked at many universities, including Portland State University, the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. In some cases, students have alleged they were targeted for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.

Willamette has not seen student visas revoked, according to a college web page last updated April 14.

A federal judge in Oregon on Monday ordered the government to reinstate visas for two Oregon students and blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting them.

Howard said she tries to avoid politics, but felt compelled to demonstrate her strong support for academic freedom and concerns about the U.S. losing its position as a driver of research and innovation.

She said she can’t recall another time in her academic career when college and university research and operations were so politicized. Howard said she expects other Oregon colleagues to sign on to the letter.

Thorsett on Tuesday said he wasn’t available for an interview about his signature, but pointed to a long history of defending academic freedom during his career.

Twenty years ago, a committee that he helped lead at the University of California wrote the university system’s policy saying that faculty should be free to accept or decline research funding from any source. That came amid internal pressure to bar researchers from accepting money from tobacco companies.

The committee’s report said such internal restrictions, as well as external conditions like requiring researchers to be U.S. citizens, threatened academic inquiry and the university’s independence.

“The work is never done,” Thorsett said in a text Tuesday.