Thinking about all this talk of how universities and academia might resist political interference, and the multitudes of faculty and other internal actors who obey in advance, I'm struck by two commonalities in what I'm seeing. Is this a thread? Maybe - ThreadSky

roxanneshirazi.bsky.social • 39 days ago

Thinking about all this talk of how universities and academia might resist political interference, and the multitudes of faculty and other internal actors who obey in advance, I'm struck by two commonalities in what I'm seeing.

Is this a thread? Maybe

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roxanneshirazi.bsky.social•39 days ago

One aspect is captured in the AAUP’s 1956 report on the red scare that’s quoted in the statement released today: “The temptation to yield a little in order to preserve a great deal is strong.... Yet to yield a little is, in such matters, to run the risk of sacrificing all.” +

roxanneshirazi.bsky.social•39 days ago

Acknowledging this as a temptation is important. It is a legitimate reaction to choose your battles, but when they come for your very existence, we cannot budge. It’s why librarians were so lucky to have @edrabinski.bsky.social as ALA president when faced with a wave of right wing book banners +

roxanneshirazi.bsky.social•39 days ago

Librarians had seen the ALA jump to cooperate with Trump in 2016. Emily knew to jump in the other direction. She called a spade a spade and in the process helped build a mass movement against this coordinated attack, one that proactively envisions how to make gains instead of retreating. +

roxanneshirazi.bsky.social•39 days ago

So there’s that! The other thing that I’ve noticed, at least in the last few pieces I’ve read and shared, is an absence of students in the political calculation for universities. Students have less structural power but they also have a unique power. Because they are the reason for our existence. +

roxanneshirazi.bsky.social•39 days ago

There’s a 1940 Frank Borzage movie called THE MORTAL STORM, set in 1933 Germany. One character is a university professor, whose students rise up against him and rebel against his expertise because he refuses to accept (or teach) the fake race science of the Nazis that they wanted to study. +

roxanneshirazi.bsky.social•39 days ago

I think about this movie a lot lately. At public universities, students are also our publics. They are often out in front on social justice issues and they hold our institutions to task in ways faculty and staff can’t. But they are susceptible to the same currents running through public life. +

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