PLEASE ADD YOUR SIGNATURE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS DOCUMENT BY THURSDAY, FEB 13, 10 P.M.

WE WILL ACCEPT ALL SIGNATURES and INCORPORATE THEM INTO THE FINAL DOCUMENT.

QUESTIONS, PLEASE EMAIL: mgallope@umn.edu

Dear Members of the Board of Regents,

We, the undersigned faculty, staff, and students of the University of Minnesota, are gravely concerned about the recently proposed Board of Regents Resolution on Institutional Speech. 

The language of the draft resolution undermines the University’s core values of academic freedom and its constitutional obligations to uphold free speech. As written, it runs counter to the First Amendment’s free speech protections and would likely be found unconstitutionally vague and overbroad under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, particularly in its undefined use of phrases like “by and in the name of the University” and “matters of public concern or public interest.” 

The resolution also undermines the ability of the University, and all its units—including centers, institutes, departments, colleges, schools and campuses—to fulfill its mission to the state, as expressed in the Board of Regents Mission Statement. The University’s many units are not merely collections of individuals; they represent distinct areas of expertise with corresponding missions of public outreach and engagement. A full third of the University’s mission, covered under the term “Outreach and Public Service,” states that the University community is obligated to:

“extend, apply, and exchange knowledge between the University and society by applying scholarly expertise to community problems, by helping organizations and individuals respond to their changing environments, and by making the knowledge and resources created and preserved at the University accessible to the citizens of the state, the nation, and the world.”

For these reasons, we fully endorse the recently approved resolution by the University Senate Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee that, if adopted by the Faculty Senate, would request that the proposed Board Resolution on Institutional Speech be withdrawn.

We further ask the Board of Regents to strengthen our University’s commitment to academic freedom, free speech, and shared governance by endorsing the University Senate’s Administrative Policy on Position Statements on Matters of Public Concern which was a product of extensive consultation and collaboration with members of the University community. It passed the University senate in a vote of 122-8 on December 5, 2024.

Teri L. Caraway, Professor, Political Science, CLA Faculty Senator

Michael Gallope, Professor, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, Faculty Senator, and Vice-Chair, College of Liberal Arts Assembly

V.V. Ganeshananthan, Associate Professor, English, McKnight Presidential Fellow, CLA Faculty Senator

Nathaniel Mills, Associate Professor, English, CLA Faculty Senator\

Karen Ho, Professor of Anthropology; Interim Chair, African American & African Studies

Elliott Powell, Associate Professor, Department of American Studies

Liliana Zaragoza, Associate Professor of Clinical Law & Director, Racial Justice Law Clinic, Law School

Ruth Shaw, Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior

Ajay Skaria, Professor, Department of History, Institute for Global Studies

Aren Aizura, Associate Professor and Chair, Gender Women and Sexuality Studies

Timothy Brennan, Professor, Department of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature; and English

Amelia María de la Luz Montes, Professor and Chair, The Department of Chicano and Latino Studies

Jean O’Brien, Regents Professor, Department of History

Keya Ganguly, Professor, Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature 

Helena Pohlandt-McCormick, Associate Professor, Department of History, Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC)

Sarah C. Chambers, Professor and Chair, Department of History

Stuart McLean, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology

Barbara Y. Welke, Distinguished McKnight University Professor, Professor of History and Law

David A. Chang, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of History; Interim Chair of American Indian Studies

Kathryn Nuernberger, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of English

Miranda Joseph, Chair of American Studies; Professor of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies

Mandeep S.S. Gill, PhD, Physics and Astronomy Lecturer, School of Physics and Astronomy

Sima Shakhsari, Associate Professor, Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies

Michael Goldman, Associate Professor, Sociology and Global Studies

Nadia Anguiano, Associate Clinical Professor of Law & Director, Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic, Law School

Dwight K. Lewis Jr., Assistant Professor of Philosophy & Co-director of the Center for Canon Expansion & Change

In Solidarity,

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