Bay Area Students, Faculty Rally for Academic Freedom and Funding

Faculty and students at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State rallied on Thursday as part of a national day of action “to defend higher education,” amid the Trump administration’s attacks on academic freedoms.

The faculty-organized demonstrations come as the Trump administration, which has already slashed billions of dollars in federal funding for academic research programs across the country, threatens to withhold billions more from some of the nation’s top universities that refuse to comply with its political agenda.

“We came together because we felt like the administration needed both to be pressured and encouraged and supported … to stand up for the ongoing need for academic freedom,” Leslie Salzinger, chair of UC Berkeley’s Gender and Women’s Studies department, told KQED, as she stood among hundreds of colleagues and students at Sproul Plaza for the midday rally.

“That means the freedom to speak, to teach, to learn and to do research … without fear of reprisals,” said Salzinger, who helped organize Thursday’s action. “So our goal is to continue making sure that that’s possible.”

The Trump administration has not yet directly threatened to withhold federal funding from the University of California system, as it has with Harvard, Columbia and a growing number of other prestigious universities around the country. Unlike Columbia, Harvard rejected the administration’s demands to overhaul its hiring, admissions and curriculum policies, walking away from $2.2 billion in federal funding — with the Internal Revenue Service now reportedly considering revoking the university’s tax-exempt status.

The U.S. Department of Justice is, however, currently investigating claims of antisemitism at at least 17 colleges in the state — including UC Berkeley.

But Salzinger thinks it won’t be long until UC Berkeley also finds itself at risk of losing its federal funding, and said this rally is intended to pressure university officials to strengthen their resolve.

“I think that there are many people who are frightened, especially for our many non-citizen colleagues and students,” she said, referring to the administration’s ongoing efforts to revoke the visas of immigrant students across the country who have participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

“There are many things [the UC Berkeley administration] could do better. Like, they should commit to funding students that get their visas revoked,” she said. “But I feel like they’re going in the right direction. So we just want them to keep that up.”

UC Berkeley English professor Poulomi Saha said they have already self-censored some of their teachings as a result of the Trump administration’s actions, and attended Thursday’s rally to form a united front against its onslaught of attacks on higher education.

Saha had recently been preparing a classroom presentation that referenced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but ended up deleting the slides.

“For the first time in my career, I stopped not just because I was worried about my students’ experience or discomfort around the material, but because I was worried about the surveillance of the federal government on what I do and teach,” they said.

Across the bay, at San Francisco State University, about 100 faculty and students gathered for a teach-in and demonstration on the campus’ Malcolm X Plaza. Part of the same day of action, the rally centered on recent state funding cuts to the university and other California State University schools, which have gutted various programs and departments.

An SF State spokesperson said the school would likely have to make nearly $25 million in reductions next year due to declining enrollment and the prospect of a nearly 8% cut to the CSU budget — roughly $375 million — if state lawmakers approve Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget.

That comes on top of previous budget cuts that have forced SFSU to cancel classes and sports programs, and “lay off nearly all faculty on year-to-year contracts,” the school said in a statement this week.

Sean Connolly, who attended Thursday’s rally, counts himself among the casualties of those cuts. A Humanities Department lecturer at SF State for 17 years, Connolly said his position was eliminated last year.

“It was gutting. I mean, it was like losing a friend. It was like a death,” he said. “We were just told that we were no longer needed and that was it.”

Connolly said he’s distressed that government officials, on both the federal and state levels, simply aren’t prioritizing funding for public education institutions.

“They think it’s too expensive,” he said. “And it’s immensely damaging to everybody. Not just to those who lose their jobs, not just to the students … but to the nation as a whole.”

Wendy Sanchez, an SF State communications student who also attended Thursday’s rally, said budget cuts have reduced course offerings and prevented her from being able to take the classes she needs to graduate — delaying her graduation by a semester.

“I felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me,” she said.

KQED’s Nisa Khan and Sara Hossaini contributed reporting.