Faculty, staff and students rally for free speech protection in higher education

Faculty, staff and students from Pittsburgh universities rallied for free speech protection in higher education amid the Trump administration’s cuts to university programs and funding in Schenley Plaza Thursday afternoon.

The event, co-organized by the United Steelworkers Local 1088, which represents full time and part time faculty at Pitt, and the American Association of University Professors, was held in solidarity with the National Day of Action for Higher Education across the country. About 200 students, faculty and community members filled the plaza holding signs and banners, chanting rally cries and singing for solidarity.

Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., who was speaking at the event, said communities need to come “closer together than they’ve ever been,” especially now, when she sees the federal government aiming to divide its targets. As she sees it, communities of people, especially in universities and those involved in research, are the final fail-safe in democracy and have the power to affect the future.

“Passive action will not do. If we are going to save our institutions and our research, if we are going to save America’s real strength, which is not our military and not our nuclear armaments. Our real power is in our intelligence and in our research,” Rep. Lee said. “It’s to attract worldwide talent who want to come right here to Pitt or CMU.”

Rep. Lee said in an interview that moments of crisis, like the current one, are usually a frightening time for the future of the country, referencing the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage movement and the apartheid movement. 

Rep. Lee said professors should appeal to the University to protect their students and resist Trump’s mandates, despite the possible consequences. 

“No one can promise you that your job is going to be secure or that this is going to come without any pain or problems, but we can promise you that if we do this together that we will not just make it through but protect each other,” Lee said.

Ellen Lee, professor of classics at Pitt and co-organizer of the event, said she feels strongly about Trump’s threats to DEI programs and federal funding for students at universities. 

“A goal of ours is to let the University know we feel very strongly about academic freedom and we’re not in favor of the approach Columbia has taken,” Lee, who is also chair of the Civil and Human Rights Committee of USW Local 1088, said. “Even just one crack in the armor of the University resisting that outside political interference means that interference on any of these topics could slip in.”

Michael Goodhart, professor of political science at Pitt and representative of the AAUP, said the rally should promote collective action. He said he stresses that educators should view the University as a partner and ally while also holding them to a high standard, specifically involving political pressure that sometimes causes universities, such as Columbia and until recently Harvard, to partake in anticipatory obedience or appeasement.

“You can’t find examples in history where you try to appease the bully and the bully says, ‘Okay great, thanks, that’s enough,’” Goodhart said. “We cannot concede and appease our way to some better future. [Pitt] may not be the first ones in their sights, but [the Trump administration will] come around to us eventually, and if you have the backing of your faculty, that really helps.”

Before the event, attendees spoke about why they came to the rally. Mary Ann Steiner, a research associate at Pitt, said she lost funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a climate research project led by Phipps Conservatory. Steiner said she is also concerned about research funding cuts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation but believes the rallying agenda should be broad to include as many people as possible. 

“I think if we all work on the same agenda instead of letting them isolate us and treat us like crabs in a bucket, if we all build and just keep resisting and keep resisting, I think it’ll be better,” Steiner said. “I know Harvard has a giant endowment, but they’re standing up to all the ongoing escalation.”

Will Hinson, lead technologist of the Open Lab in the Hillman Library, said he wants the university administration to release a statement saying they would not capitulate if the government threatens more funding cuts.

“Legislators tend to feel pressure from their constituents, but the people who are in charge of the university need to feel pressure from the people who work here because they’re making decisions for all of us,” Hinson said.

Rounding out the rally, Goodhart spoke about the function of universities dissenting from the status quo and the government. He said he believes universities threaten the government by being “places of thinking otherwise” to propaganda, scapegoating and the dehumanization of enemies.

“Together we are strong, and so we have to fight together,” Goodhart said. “We have a responsibility to fight for our students, for our institutions and for our country.”