There are many kinds of violence, and not all are equally recognized. Last month, I wrote a letter to the Tulane University community addressing the horrific act of terror in the French Quarter on New Year’s Day, which instantly shook the city and took the lives of over a dozen individuals. Now, in my second letter of this year, I am compelled to address the sweeping attacks against the higher education system by the current presidential administration, first through cuts to federal research funding and more recently through threatened funding cuts to all institutions implementing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
It may seem strange to describe these acts as violent, since their effects are not immediately visible. Tomorrow morning, campus will still stand, and students will return to classes, and it will be cold but bearable. But they are violent nonetheless, as they will cause inestimable harm to universities and the people they are meant to serve, which is to say, everyone. Like watching the actual destruction of a building from afar – with its components coming apart as if in slow motion, noiseless for moments before the bang – seeing our school’s non-physical structure being dismantled around us is as astonishing as it is incomprehensible.
On Feb. 7, the National Institutes of Health announced that it would limit indirect funding for research laboratories to 15%, whereas previously, indirect funding often made up over 50% of federal funding for research at American colleges and universities. In Tulane’s case, it is estimated that the cut will constitute an annual loss of over $32 million. The things this money supports, including the creation and maintenance of facilities and their core personnel, are not ancillary to science but essential aspects of it; losing them may leave participants in Tulane’s 1,600 ongoing clinical trials stranded and could set back critical research programs for decades. Giovanni Piedimonte, vice president of research at Tulane, described the cuts as “a devastating blow to research operations at any academic institution” in a recent interview with The Hullabaloo.
Then, on Feb. 14, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, issued a “Dear Colleague” letter announcing a two-week period to cancel all attempts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion, at the risk of losing federal funding. The order touches all aspects of campus life concerning race, from admissions processes to curricula to clubs. Tulane touts the existence of several dozen recognized student organizations focused on multiculturalism, race, gender and sexuality and religion, as well as the Carolyn Barber-Pierre Center for Intercultural Life and Offices of Multicultural Affairs, Gender & Sexual Diversity and Spiritual Life. The letter was ambiguous as to which federally supported programs fall under this order, but presumably, they will include student loans, free or reduced lunch programs, support for students with special needs and Title IV, which consists of the Federal Pell Grant program and the Federal Work-Study program, among others. Tulane relies extensively on federal funding, with 17% of students in the most recently admitted class relying on Federal Pell Grants, over a thousand students employed in work-study jobs and many School of Professional Advancement students relying on GI benefits.
Most chilling of all, though, was the fact that the letter was framed in the language of civil rights law, the very language that was meant to encourage equal opportunity for students of all backgrounds. One paragraph reads:
“In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families. These institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia.”
Nothing about this letter is collegial. It has nothing to do with fairness or reducing wasteful spending. It is about rolling back hard-won progress toward racial equity, and that is all.
More immediately, it is a test of the extent of the Trump administration’s power over higher education. It is a test that many institutions have already failed: The United States Military Academy disbanded 12 cultural affinity groups, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania removed messages about transgender inclusion from their athletics websites and Michigan State University canceled a Lunar New Year celebration. The announcements of Feb. 7 and Feb. 14 must be discussed within the same breath: Research is done by people of different races and genders, and research pertaining to race, gender, and other forms of difference is being systematically banned from official discourse. Already I have overheard professors discussing the ways they might reframe their work to make it past censors.
I am not so naïve as to overlook the importance of getting published or receiving funding; and yet, nothing could be more obvious than the fact that any compromise, compliance or capitulation to these orders is the precisely wrong response.
On Thursday, President Fitts sent a letter to the Tulane community affirming the university’s commitments to protecting its members from “unlawful discrimination, harassment and retaliation in all forms,” while also “[making] sure that our policies, practices and procedures comply with federal law.”
I will put things more emphatically than he did. Tulane must do all that is in its power to defend itself and its own against these policies. Tulane must ignore this order, as complying with such blatantly unconstitutional federal directives is incompatible with the school’s mission to support students’ ability to thrive.
Tulane, do not fail this test.
The future of our institution has been uncertain before. I have read through The Hullabaloo’s archives, which span over a century of the university’s history, and seen the months-long gap beginning in August 2005 that attests to this fact. However, to my knowledge, the future of Tulane as we know it has never been made so uncertain by systemic pressures. We will have to see what happens in the courts.
It may be surprising for the editor to write so candidly. But now is not the time for reservation or the kind of journalistic objectivity that purports to give equal space to both sides of an issue. I am not proclaiming here The Hullabaloo’s affiliation with any particular group. Rather, I am doing what is in my power to call for the preservation of the institution that makes this publication possible, the same institution that houses many of its readers, who come from most sides in question.
I write this letter to you and to the archives, with as much conviction as concern.
