The Erosion of Academic Freedom in the US Continues Unabated

The most recent issue of the annual report of Scholars At Risk, Free to Think 2025, outlines and complies threats to and violations of academic freedom around the world in the 2024-2025 academic year.

One of the countries to experience the most significant erosions in key components of academic freedom, such as university autonomy and the freedom to research and teach, is the United States. The report noted that the Trump administration has been mounting an intense attack on academic freedom with “more than 30 pieces of legislation related to higher education introduced during the first 75 days of the new administration”. This is in addition to executive orders targeting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices and practices, and the weaponization of federal investigations and funding. Unfortunately, some universities have been complicit in this erosion of academic freedom with many readily cooperating with the demands of the government in restricting academic activity on their campuses.

One of these institutions is Northwestern University. Recently, at least 300 Northwestern University students have been denied registration for refusing to complete a mandatory training on “antisemitism” that is highly controversial, as reported by The Guardian on September 27, 2025. Northwestern students that spoke to news outlets said that the training is highly biased in favor of Israel because it conflates criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza with antisemitism. Reportedly, the training content includes comparisons of critics of Israel with Ku Klux Klan members, and references to Palestinian land such as the West Bank with its Biblical names “Judea and Samaria”, as used by the current Netanyahu government. The training started to be implemented several months ago as Northwestern University came under investigation by the federal government for alleged tolerance of antisemitism on its campus. In March 2025, the university emailed students that the training would be in line with “federal policy including President Donald Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order, ‘Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism’”.

Another institution in the crosshairs is U.C., Berkeley. Recently, UC Berkeley provided a list of 160 faculty, students and staff to the Department of Education after it was requested to do so as part of an “antisemitism” investigation. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP), in a recent letter to UC Berkeley leadership, criticized this action, calling for a reversal of the sharing of personal information of UC members with the Department of Education. The AAUP has also filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration and its attempt to coerce schools across the University of California system to comply with their demands.

Amidst the government’s crusade against academic freedom, the AAUP has emerged as a major opposing voice in the context of the intensified attack of the government. In a recent ruling on a lawsuit filed by the AAUP, the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), and the Knight First Amendment Institute, a federal judge ruled that “the Trump administration’s policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the First Amendment”. This comes after at least 8 students and recent graduates were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and around 2,000 student visas were revoked in the first half of 2025.

While the AAUP’s opposition to the government’s attacks on academic freedom is a rare and much welcome development, threats from the federal and state governments continue in different forms. On October 1, 2025, the Trump administration sent a letter to nine universities across the country, urging them to pledge support for Donald Trump’s educational policy and goals in return for favorable relations with the government over issues such as funding. According to The New York Times, the letter came attached with an agreement entitled “COMPACT FOR ACADEMICEXCELLENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION” to be signed by universities as part of which they would pledge to freeze tuition for American students for five years, limit the admission of international students, and adopt definitions of gender put forward by the administration. In opposition to this action of the government, California governor Gavin Newsom announced on social media that California universities that sign this agreement will have their state funding revoked, adding that “CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM”.

Meanwhile, faculty across the country continue to be targeted through the weaponization of two main discourses: allegations of “antisemitism” and “inciting political violence”. Most recently, a professor of American studies at Cornell University, Eric Cheyfitz, has had his classes cancelled and is facing suspension without pay for alleged discrimination against an Israeli student in his class. Cheyfitz, who is himself Jewish, is an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights and has taught on the subject for many years. Last semester, he was teaching a class titled “Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” when several students approached him to voice their concerns that one of the students in the class was recording them according to The Nation. The student was identified as a PhD candidate in computer science who had previously served in Israeli intelligence. Prof. Cheyfitz met with the student to ask him to drop the course, and he did, while it was later revealed that he recorded their conversation too, without Professor Cheyfitz’s knowledge. While initial investigations found no grounds for sanctions, Cornell Provost Kavita Bala opened her own investigation, accusing Cheyfitz of having asked the student to drop the class not because he was secretly recording others but because he is Israeli.

The second frame used to target university professors is that of “political violence” as the government’s campaign against what it calls an emergency of “left-wing political violence” and “terrorism” has seen the National Guard deployed into cities such as Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, as well as the state of Illinois. The latest academic to be sanctioned for alleged incitement to political violence is Dwayne Dixon, associate professor of Asian and Middle Eastern studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dixon was placed on leave on September 29, 2025, for being a former member of the left-wing antifascist gun-rights group “Redneck Revolt”. Dixon was placed on leave after Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson for Turning Point USA, the organization founded by right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk who was assassinated on the Utah Valley University campus, shared a news article noting Dixon’s prior involvement with Redneck Revolt, adding that “[t]his professor must be immediately fired and the group/network investigated. According to Inside Higher Ed, there have been” dozens of colleges and university faculty members who have been placed on leave, disciplined or fired in the weeks since Kirk was shot and killed”. So far only two of them, Michael Hook at University of South Dakota and Thomas Alter at Texas State University, have been reinstated to their positions after suing their schools and judges issuing restraining orders on their termination.

Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) condemns the ongoing attacks against academic freedom by the Trump administration as well as the capitulation of universities to the demands of the government. We call for an end to the political weaponization of federal funding for universities as well as the unwarranted sanctioning of faculty members, two major factors causing an erosion of institutional autonomy and the freedom to academic expression. We invite the global community to join our call.