College Democrats Of America And Other Groups Call For Firing UC President Over “Betrayal” Of Academic Freedom

“Participating in a witch-hunt reminiscent of the McCarthy Era is a betrayal of basic principles. We urge the University of California Board of Regents to remove the current UC president and replace him with a leader willing to defend academic freedom instead of betraying it.”

By Progressive Hub Team

Charging that the University of California has “disgracefully undermined” the First Amendment, a coalition of national organizations Tuesday called for the firing of the university’s president.

“Academic freedom is essential to the integrity of education,” the coalition said in a launched petition. “That integrity has been violated by the University of California as it turned over the names of 160 students, faculty members and staff to the Trump administration, chilling free speech while jeopardizing the futures of individuals tarred with the vague category of ‘potential connection to reports of alleged antisemitism.’ Instead of standing up for the First Amendment, the University of California has disgracefully undermined it.”

The sponsors of the resolution are College Democrats of America, High School Democrats of America, Progressive Democrats of America and RootsAction.

Addressed to the 24 members of the UC Board of Regents, the petition says: “Accountability is essential for this egregious breach of the covenant that an educational institution should uphold with its students and faculty. Participating in a witch-hunt reminiscent of the McCarthy Era is a betrayal of basic principles. We urge the University of California Board of Regents to remove the current UC president and replace him with a leader willing to defend academic freedom instead of betraying it.”

The national president of College Democrats of America, Sunjay Muralitharan, who lives in Fremont, California, is a member of the Democratic National Committee. He said on Tuesday: “The Trump administration has made its mission to quell dissent through intimidation and censorship reminiscent of a fascist regime. While they send our hard-earned taxpayer dollars to bolster genocide abroad and neglect those struggling at home, young Americans with the moral clarity to challenge this injustice are stripped of their First Amendment rights. But College Democrats will not stand for this intimidation, and nor should any educational institution.”

The petition notes that “the names of individuals as well as information about them were provided to the Trump administration at the direction of the University of California’s Office of the President.” The university’s president, James B. Milliken, has been on the job since August 1. He began at UC immediately after a seven-year stint as chancellor of the University of Texas System.

“The UC regents should send a clear message to Milliken that he’s not in Texas anymore,” said RootsAction national director Norman Solomon. “And the clearest way to convey the message would be to show him the door.”

Noting that Gov. Gavin Newsom appoints UC regents and is himself a voting member of the regents board, Solomon added: “Newsom should be speaking out against this outrageous action by the UC president. The state of California is now deeply implicated in assaulting academic freedom, with its university turning over names of students and faculty to the Trump administration in a 1950s blacklist style. What kind of Democratic governor fails to challenge such an assault on the First Amendment by his state’s university system?”

Two of the organizations launching the petition — College Democrats of America and High School Democrats of America — are officially affiliated with the Democratic National Committee, and the heads of those groups are DNC members.

Progressive Democrats of America executive director Alan Minsky said: “Historian Timothy Snyder’s first lesson for countering tyranny is ‘Do Not Obey in Advance.’ Yet UC Berkeley President Milliken did exactly that, naming the names of 160 students, faculty and staff to the Trump administration before they were accorded any due process. Their crime? Practicing Free Speech. Mario Savio and James Madison are rolling over in their graves.”

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The paperback edition of his latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, includes an afterword about the Gaza war.