In response to continued attacks by the Trump administration, the University Senate approved two resolutions on Monday that declared support for the University’s commitment to higher education.
The first resolution urges Chancellor Robert Jones and UI System President Tim Killeen to join the Mutual Academic Defense Compact with other universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance. The second offers specific calls to action the University should take in response to threats.
The resolutions were proposed at the Senate Executive Committee on April 21 and passed at Monday’s senate meeting — the last of the academic year — with support from 141 and 136 Senators, respectively.
“What’s happening in our country in relation to higher education — international students, scholars and funding — a lot of this is seriously wrong, and we have to fight,” said Christopher Weaver, associate professor in LAS, in support of the resolution.
Under the MADC, the University and other member institutions would provide funds and legal counsel to members that find themselves “under direct political or legal infringement.”
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Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, his administration has threatened to withhold federal grants from universities accused of allowing antisemitism and has frozen federal funding from several schools, including Northwestern University.
At the University, cuts to federally funded research efforts forced the Soybean Innovation lab to briefly shut down and nearly cost the University a projected $67 million through a proposed National Institutes of Health indirect cost funding cap.
University Provost John Coleman, speaking in place of Jones, did not comment on the resolutions directly. Coleman said Jones is in Washington, D.C., meeting with other members of the Association of American Universities to discuss collaborative strategies.
“We are certainly taking your conversation and discussion back to the Chancellor when he returns,” Coleman said.
Illinois is now the tenth school in the Big Ten to pass a resolution to join the MADC, first passed by Rutgers University in late March. Indiana University, Ohio State University, University of Nebraska, Michigan State University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Maryland and University of Washington have all passed similar resolutions, Forbes reported Saturday.
Both resolutions now await consideration by University administration.
