University of Iowa faculty panel endorses ‘shared values’ statement; not Big Ten ‘mutual defense compact’

Although a growing number of Big Ten university faculty senates have passed or endorsed a “mutual defense compact” resolution opposing “escalating politically motivated actions” from the Trump administration, the University of Iowa Faculty Senate has not and does not have it on an upcoming agenda to consider.

The UI Faculty Council — the Faculty Senate’s executive body — did vote April 8 to endorse a “statement on shared values of higher education” that several other Big Ten faculty senates and councils signed in response to funding cuts and programmatic challenges threatening “to dismantle the core values and mission of higher education.”

“This resolution was written collaboratively by faculty governance leaders at universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance,” according to a document the UI Faculty Council endorsed. Other signatories include faculty bodies at Ohio State University, Northwestern University, Michigan State University, Purdue University and the universities of Michigan, Nebraska and Oregon.

“At the April 29 meeting, the (UI) Faculty Senate will vote on whether it should add its signature to this statement,” UI professor and Faculty Senate President Caroline Sheerin told The Gazette.

  Buy Photo

That statement affirms a list of core higher education values and beliefs, highlighting the public good universities provide through teaching, research and service; their collective support of free speech and academic freedom; and their opposition to “targeted harassment of faculty members for their expertise.”

“Cuts to research funding in higher education will undermine scientific innovation, health, societal progress, and the U.S.’s leadership position, with long-lasting detrimental impacts,” according to the statement, affirming, “Academic scholarship and research, through peer review and professional accreditation, lead to evidence-based expertise, not partisan viewpoints.”

‘Mutual Defense Compact’

Separate from that statement, several Big Ten faculties have endorsed the “mutual defense compact” committed to — among other things — share funding, legal resources and strategic support to battle efforts to undermine their autonomy, academic and research missions and free speech.

Faculty senates and councils that have signed onto the compact or passed similar resolutions include those at Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Nebraska and Rutgers, which started the push in early April. Ohio State and the University of Southern California have votes upcoming, according to national media reports.

The UI’s Sheerin said that “the statement that calls for a mutual defense compact is not on the agenda for the April 29 meeting.”

“The Trump administration and aligned political actors have signaled a willingness to target individual institutions with legal, financial, and political incursion designed to undermine their public mission, silence dissenting voices, and/or exert improper control over academic inquiry,“ according to the compact, inviting the 18 Big Ten campuses to unite. “Preservation of one institution’s integrity is the concern of all, and an infringement against one member university of the Big Ten shall be considered an infringement against all.”

The Big Ten Academic Alliance — although named in the resolution — has issued a statement separating itself from the effort.

“The Big Ten Academic Alliance did not contribute to and has not endorsed the Rutgers University senate’s recent resolution, or similar resolutions from other universities, calling for a ‘mutual defense compact’ across Big Ten Academic Alliance universities,” according to the statement. “Further, the resolutions do not represent the position of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, nor are they binding on the Big Ten Academic Alliance or any of its member institutions.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com