On Monday of this week,  UMBC’s faculty senate passed a resolution encouraging UMBC’s leaders to work with other institutions of higher learning to establish Mutual Academic Defense Compacts in Defense of Academic Freedom, Free Expression, Institutional Integrity, and the Research Enterprise in light of recent governmental actions that threaten these foundational principles of US higher education. The first Mutual Academic Defense Compact was passed by the senate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on April 10.

UMBC’s language, attached, is in alignment with the language passed by other public and land grant universities, the list of which can be found here. Andrea Kalfoglou, faculty senator from Sociology, Anthropology, and Public Health, who introduced the measure, says “Academic freedom is the cornerstone of higher education, research integrity, and democratic societies. It empowers educators and students alike to pursue truth wherever it leads — without fear. UMBC has joined other public and land grant universities to collectively defend academic freedom.”