California students and faculty join national protest of Trump’s crackdown on higher education

Students and faculty across California and the nation staged coordinated protests Thursday to collectively push back against what they view as the Trump administration s attacks on higher mentoring In the greater Bay Area rallies protesting federal funding cuts and more took place at Stanford University California State University East Bay UC Santa Cruz UC Berkeley and San Jose State University This is an issue that goes beyond issues of just academic freedom revealed Robert Reich former Secretary of Labor and current UC Berkeley constituents strategy professor at the university s demonstration Thursday It goes to the core meaning of freedom in this country It goes to the essence of what we all believe about America because if the Trump regime can dictate to any university the terms on which its faculty or its students or its administrators or anybody in this group is going to function then there are no limits to what that regime will do You cannot appease a tyrant The national day of action comes as the Trump administration has unveiled several executive orders and policies targeting higher tuition ranging from revoking international scholar visas and cutting research funding to cracking down on transgender athlete participation and opening investigations into alleged antisemitism on campuses including subpoenaing hundreds of faculty members at the University of California The administration has threatened to withhold elite universities funding if they don t comply with demands threats Trump functionaries have upheld in cutting million in federal funding from Columbia University and preponderance just now freezing billion at Harvard University after university agents refused to eliminate diversity equity and inclusion programs ban masks at campus protests and change admissions policies Hundreds gathered Thursday at UC Berkeley s Sproul Plaza the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement Students and faculty held posters with the face of Columbia University scholar Mahmoud Khalil who was detained by immigration officers at his Columbia University-owned home last month over his role in protests against the Israel-Hamas war and wore pins with the name of Kilmar Abrego Garcia a Maryland man illegally deported to an El Salvadoran prison An array of signs and banners reading Guidance not censorship Don t cave cuts kill and Freedom to learn and protest signaled what was motivating people to show up Caden Payne a UC Berkeley junior studying statistics science noted he s never been to a protest before but felt it was essential to attend the demonstration Threatening cuts to research for organizations fighting environment change affects people like me doing fundamental work Payne explained It s major to have the power of the people coming together as a group We may not be powerful individually but we are when we come together For Tianna Paschel a professor of African American studies with a focus on authoritarianism Thursday s demonstration was about experiencing region while standing up to what she disclosed are attacks on African American studies women s rights and the progress made under the Third World Liberation Front a multi-ethnic movement started by novice groups at San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley in the late s Everything I believe in is under assault explained Paschel who took her class out of the classroom and into Sproul Plaza to witness the demonstration What makes me feel hopeful and gives me ability is this is a place where you can find society in the courage It s a place where you won t feel alone fighting back and it s a place where there s going to dependably be a sustained resistance of a few kind It feels good At San Jose State University more than educators students and local and state leaders gathered to stand up for academic freedom free speech and diversity California Faculty Association members also called on the state to provide additional funding for California universities in the wake of Trump s funding cuts San Jose State lecturer Amanda Smith disclosed Thursday served as an opportunity to plant the seed for students and faculty to feel empowered to speak out against Trump s actions while lecturer and poet Anne F Walker reported she felt it was critical to protest for her colleagues who were unable to do so out of fears of deportation or arrest I am a middle-aged American-born white woman at the end of a teaching career I have more protections than countless people Walker revealed For me to be out here is pivotal for the people who can t I don t want to be in a situation where we can t speak up anymore Karen Reyes a senior at San Jose State explained Thursday was the first time she protested since protesting Trump s first-term win in She revealed she missed class to attend the rally because if she doesn t fight for schooling she worries she won t have an training Our current president wants us to be uneducated so that they can mold us into what they want us to be Reyes revealed Related Articles How war money and the quest for discovery entwined the US executive and universities Dozens more UC San Diego attendee visas canceled New lawsuit alleges traffic stops dismissed cases used by Trump administration as criteria to revoke pupil visas Opinion Harvard s decision was the only option preserving integrity Brooks Producing something this stupid is the achievement of a lifetime San Jose Assemblymember Alex Lee called on Gov Gavin Newsom to stand up to Trump s bullying praising Maine Gov Janet Mills for her refusal to comply with an executive order barring transgender athletes from women s sports The Trump administration sued Maine for the move earlier this week In March Newsom revealed on his podcast it was deeply unfair for transgender athletes to participate in girls sports Despite Trump s retaliatory actions against universities and leaders who refuse to comply with his demands educators announced they refused to be scared into silence We are here because our whole entire society is under attack stated Chris Cox a sociology professor at San Jose State Trump s real agenda is basically to create a society where people have no ability to fight back