Dear Provost Jayawardhana and Executive Vice President Laurent Heller:
Thank you for responding. We are glad to have the additional information you provided, and in some cases have received updates from our FBAC and JHUC representatives. These updates do not provide tremendously increased detail from the emails we are receiving from Central. The situation since you replied to me has become even more grave given the just-announced NIH cap of the indirect cost rate. We of course agree with your email of February 7: this is a major blow to multiple schools and divisions at JHU. Ultimately, repercussions will impact every student, and every member of the faculty, staff, and administration.
Before your February 7 email, you reiterated that the administration is seeking input from the representational bodies of our faculty, staff, and students. However, additional clarification and rapid response is needed to initiate that input process. Regarding faculty engagement, we recommend the following:
1. Include faculty and faculty-equivalent professional staff, specifically elected for this purpose, on all existing work groups formed in response to the recent federal changes.
2. If it does not already exist, form an inclusive work group to identify internal needs and generate suggestions to leverage faculty, student, and staff strengths in the evolving landscape.
1. Give elected members of this workgroup a temporary presence on the Board of Trustees to establish direct lines of communication and collaboration.
The Hopkins work groups are gathering information and providing recommendations for leadership to consider. If faculty are not involved as equal parties in this, Hopkins will be fighting with one arm tied behind its back. At this historic and unprecedented time, having the analysis and insights of scholars is critical.
· We have scholars with decades of relevant experience on processes of democratic erosion. Some specifically examine university campuses as sites of power consolidation (often via purges and executive orders banning language) and identify threats to the personal and professional security of faculty, staff, and students. Their comparative expertise in countries such as Turkey, Hungary, Russia, and Venezuela could inform steps Hopkins might take in responding to political interference, and in guiding targeted individuals on maximizing their safety.
· Among Hopkins faculty we have preeminent scholars of politics and history. Their analysis will provide a long-view lens that may reduce the impulse towards reactivity, a natural response in uncertain, volatile, and chaotic times.
· Faculty have long-standing relationships with program officers across all federal granting agencies and many private foundations. Accessing this wealth of knowledge and networking connections will help work groups better understand, and respond to, ongoing developments.
· Some faculty have lived through and closely analyzed recent state-level government usurpation of education systems within the US; such background and experience will be directly relevant.
In addition to these positive reasons for including faculty, excluding faculty from the work groups can create the appearance that faculty are not valued by the administration. This can contribute to a sense that faculty face not only external but also internal threats to their ability and opportunity to do their job and contribute to a strong Hopkins, and a strong, democratic America.
Further, failure to partner with faculty reinforces and amplifies a dangerous narrative which devalues the role of academia in democracy.
Accordingly, we hold and affirm that Hopkins will be strengthened if faculty, staff, students, and administration are brought together to meet this seismic, intentional, and profound disruption of the higher education landscape. We call for the immediate inclusion of and partnership with faculty and/or faculty-equivalent staff from SOM, BPH, WSE, KSAS, and APL who are elected specifically for engagement in the work groups. We are also urging staff and student leadership to similarly call for clarification of how they can provide input.
Sincerely, and with great appreciation for your ongoing service to our community,
Juliana