I am disappointed that Trinity University, where I taught for almost 40 years, did not sign the statement of more than 250 prime U.S. colleges and universities to stand up to the Trump regime’s attempt to take them over. I scanned the list in vain for the name of Trinity’s president, Vanessa Beasley.

This is not a time for academics to quake and grovel and obey Trump’s dictatorship in advance.

I am proud that our family colleges — Macalester, Princeton, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan, Harvard, Washington State, Cornell, the University of Washington, Seattle University — plus scores and scores of Christian colleges, state universities, private and public institutions in every state and region stood up and signed the statement of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. In recent years, I’ve seen Trinity grow and develop until it rightly claims to belong in the top rank of American liberal arts institutions like the above-mentioned. The AAC&U statement is all about freedom to teach and learn. That is our calling. Our reason for being. How can it be that Trinity, the school to which I gave my best years, would hide from lending its voice to this ringing defense of academic freedom?

Where was Trinity?
Donald N. Clark, Ph.D.
Former Professor Emeritus of History