As international students nationwide are facing deportation threats and canceled visas for their political activism, and universities are under pressure to prevent campus protests and end some diversity initiatives, some professors are taking a stand against the crackdowns and political influences.
Among those speaking out is Alexandra To, an assistant professor at Northeastern University, who cowrote an Op-Ed this week in the university paper, The Huntington News, along with professors Kylie Ariel Bemis, Rahul Bhargava, Richard Daynard, Rachel Rosenbloom, and Laura Edelson. The Op-Ed, titled “We, your professors, believe our universities are worth fighting for,” is critical of university leaders who “have remained silent amid these attacks” and makes a call for standing up for academic freedom.
Sampan interviewed To by email about her views on what’s happening and why she participated in the Op-Ed that came out right as 40 student and graduate visas from the school were revoked. She teaches in both Northeastern’s Art and Design department and in the Khoury College of Computer Science.
Sampan: Students have for decades come from all over the world — including from countries like China that restrict speech and protest — to study in … Boston. What kind of message do you think the crackdowns on demonstrations, cancellations of visas for political expression and the like are sending to these students who perhaps thought this was a place where they could express ideas and opinions without fear of punishment and freely explore research freely?
To: Cynically speaking, I think most of our international students have never been under the illusion that free speech is unrestricted here. I say this both from spending years speaking to my own students about my past activism as well as the research and writing I do that engages social justice. There has always been a well-earned hesitancy that our most precarious students feel — whether it’s due to visa status, federal scholarships, etc. That being said, this is causing a massive chilling effect. Now students are not only concerned about speech and protest, but, yes, what they write, what they say and who it may be safe to say things to, what they research, and whether or not they can safely travel; it’s horrifying and completely counter to the mission and values in our Constitution.
Sampan: Some would argue that the seeds for what we’re seeing were planted when universities, including those here in Boston, cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests last year at this time. What are your thoughts on that?
To: I strongly believe the reaction of universities to pro-Palestinian protests laid the groundwork for what we are experiencing now. As we wrote in the article, we all must learn from how this has played out in the public that anticipatory compliance saves no one. It’s abhorrent to me that our reward to students who are engaged with global politics (and) human rights, and are campaigning with empathy and compassion at the forefront of their demands, is to spread misinformation painting them as violent and disruptive and (willing) to enact actual violence upon members of our own communities.
Sampan: Are you concerned about your own career and position after having co-written this Op-Ed? On the other hand, what is the risk you see in not speaking out and taking a stand?
To: Of course! I’m submitting my tenure case literally within the next month. But I also have to live with myself. My career has benefited enormously from brave scholars before me. Every day I see people who are in far more precarious positions than I am in, including students, part-time faculty, faculty who are on visas and green cards, queer and trans members of our community making a stand because they have no choice. How could I possibly make a career of writing about racial injustice and social justice and put my head in the sand? I love this job and I love research, if we don’t speak loudly in defense of our students and colleagues and community, there won’t be a job left to do. As a mixed-race Japanese American woman, I also have an acute memory of what the U.S. government is willing to do to citizens. My family members have living memories of WWII Japanese internment. I might as well use my voice while I still have the privilege of having one….
