January 31, 2025
Dear Provost Jayawardhana and Executive Vice President Laurent Heller:
We write in reply to your January 27 email regarding the Hopkins work groups created to review developments in federal funding and regulations. You indicate that school-wide faculty governance bodies will be apprised and that as you move forward both partnership and input will be sought.
We are gratified that university leadership continues to assess the evolving policy landscape. However, we believe that elected faculty leaders must play a central and coequal role in all university decisions related to changing federal policy, including the formation of these work groups, their mandates, and the selection of members. Therefore, we urge that the partnership begin now.
As the largest university recipient of federal funding in the country, Johns Hopkins is uniquely dependent on the federal grants that faculty receive. As such, it is simply not possible for the university to respond adequately to current challenges without including faculty as partners now, rather than in the future. Faculty confidence in their ability to continue their research, including to financially support PhD students, is wavering; entering cohorts are already reduced. The pipeline disruptions will have ramifications for years to come. For some faculty, concern is soaring that their teaching or research will make them a political target. Strong partnership now between faculty and administration in this time of crisis is critical as we face an environment in which the Vice President of the United States avows that the “University is the Enemy.”
We respectfully request that you immediately reach out to division-level faculty leadership (cc’ed here), JHUC, as well as leadership of staff associations to partner with you in crafting university policy and planned communications with the Hopkins community. We further insist that our faculty governance bodies participate in the evolving charges of work groups, and that faculty governance bodies name faculty membership to be appointed to the various work groups.
We look forward to working closely with you to help shape a culture of collaboration as we respond to the current challenges.
Sincerely yours,
Juliana Paré
President, Johns Hopkins AAUP Chapter
Cc: Johns Hopkins University Council
Leadership of JHU Faculty Senates