On Jan. 29, President Donald Trump signed an executive order pledging to deport college students who protested Israel’s war in Palestine in the spring of 2024. One such protest on the University of Utah campus, in April 2024, was met with unprovoked and unwarranted force by police officers, apparently at the direction of U. President Taylor Randall and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.
We, along with over 200 other members of the U. faculty, signed a letter objecting to the violation of students’ rights. In August, our chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a statement reiterating our commitment to the rights and freedoms of our students.
The AAUP’s mission includes defining fundamental professional values for higher education and ensuring that higher education contributes to the common good. We believe that a university education can prepare students, as the U.’s own mission statement proclaims, “for lives of impact as leaders and citizens.” The peaceful exercise of the right to protest is both an educational experience for students and an enactment of the U.’s stated values, including “rigorous interdisciplinary inquiry, international involvement and social responsibility.” We applaud students who exercise their rights and freedoms in this way. And we therefore vehemently object to President Trump’s threats and attempts to punish student protesters by encouraging prosecutions, canceling student visas and using deportation as a tool of political retaliation.
Experts say such actions would violate the First Amendment; advocates say they are concerned by the conflation of anti-war protests with antisemitism. What does the University of Utah’s administration say? We invite them to affirm our students’ rights under both FERPA and the First Amendment, and to pledge that they will protect student records regardless of any students’ political views or citizenship status unless legally compelled by a valid judicial warrant. Not only does this order aim to curtail students’ rights and to chill the exercise of free speech on campuses across the country, but it also sets a dangerous precedent in attempting to wield executive power against a political group President Trump disfavors.
The laws that govern immigration and make it possible for our university to enroll over 3,500 international students are not President Trump’s weapon to wield against college students in a wrongheaded grudge. As the Jewish Council for Public Affairs points out, effectively countering antisemitism requires a pluralistic and inclusive democracy.
As professors, we uphold the values of critical thinking and of taking action in defense of one’s principles as central to the purposes of higher education and vital to the health of our democracy. We insist on the authority of the U.S. Constitution to protect the rights of protesters who speak out against violence and injustice. We condemn this spiteful, retributive order in the strongest possible terms and will oppose any effort to target students who have exercised their right to peaceful protest on our campus and around the country.
(Kendall Gerdes) Kendall Gerdes is an associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies at the University of Utah.
Kendall Gerdes, associate professor of writing and rhetoric studies at the University of Utah, is the author of “Sensitive Rhetorics: Academic Freedom and Campus Activism,” and serves as president of the U.’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Views expressed don’t necessarily reflect those of the author’s employer.
(Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell) Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell is an associate professor of theatre studies at the University of Utah.
Sydney Cheek-O’Donnell, associate professor of theatre studies at the University of Utah, is the author of “Theatre (Arts for Health),” the vice president of the U.’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and a member of the U.’s Academic Senate. Views expressed don’t necessarily reflect those of the author’s employer.
The University of Utah chapter of the American Association of University Professors also signs on to this op-ed.
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