The dismantling of civic engagement programs, closing of offices supporting diversity, equity and inclusion, defunding of public scholarship centers, censoring of course syllabi containing language about race and detention of student activists are just a few of the consequences of President Donald Trump’s wave of attacks on higher education — from effectively shuttering the Department of Education to cancelling billions of dollars of federal funding for institutions. Such actions have a critical impact on the well-being and opportunities for students, faculty and staff across the country, including those within the Vanderbilt community.

“We want to make sure that Vanderbilt’s voice is present in…conversations with representatives across the aisle, and it’s very important that we make sure the core values that made American universities great are protected and supported,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said in an interview with The Hustler days after Trump’s issuance of an executive order targeting university DEI programs. 

Yet, in the time since, the only external action from our administration has been sending a campus-wide email regarding the potential impacts of NIH funding cuts on the university’s research endeavors and the publication of an op-ed calling for universities to commit themselves to excellence, academic freedom, free expression and accessibility. 

In his most recent debrief with The Hustler, Chancellor Diermeier stated that “Our job is to make sure we align and comply with [federal regulation] in our processes… on the issues that are core, we will be advocates if we think it’s appropriate and in the way we think is particularly impactful.”

But unlike the leaders at Wesleyan, Princeton and Harvard, Vanderbilt’s top staff members have chosen to remain publicly silent about Trump’s higher education agenda. Vanderbilt’s nonexistent criticism of Trump’s actions suggests that our institution’s leaders do not think standing up for higher education’s independence, academic freedom and the rights of students, faculty and staff is a core issue for the university. Rather than being morally courageous, we have chosen the easy route: to wait and see, to hide behind closed doors, to focus on compliance over resistance and to be reactive rather than proactive. 

And the impacts of this approach have already arrived. From the cleansing of social justice language on university websites, access restrictions stemming from fears of ICE agents on campus and reductions in graduate program recruitment, the ripple effects of Trump’s federal orders are affecting every facet of our university.

In this tumultuous time, it is more important than ever that members of the higher education community make their thoughts known to university leaders. It is why the editorial board of Washington University’s student newspaper called on their chancellor to “raise your voice in support of everyone that is under attack by the Trump administration” and why hundreds of Harvard faculty members asked their governing board to “legally contest and refuse to comply with unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance.” 

As a Vanderbilt student, I consider it my duty to advance these messages on our campus as well. Chancellor Diermeier, Provost C. Cybele Raver and all other members of our campus administration must make a public stand against Trump’s actions and work with other colleges across the country to fight his legislation, for the sake of our education and our democracy. Campus decision-makers: Now is the time for action, not cowardice.