Last week, Rasha Alawieh, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown, was deported from the United States at Boston Logan International Airport despite holding a valid H-1B visa. Her deportation was on the heels of the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States who, as of Tuesday, has not been charged with any crime.
The Trump administration has made it clear that it has every intention of using federal police powers to repress speech it opposes. Khalil’s arrest is intended, in the president’s own words, to be the first of “many to come.” While there is good reason to be dismayed and outraged by these actions, we should also be mindful of their likely chilling effect on freedom of expression on campus.
If expulsion is the penalty for speech perceived to be critical of government policy, many non-citizen members of the Brown community may feel they must remain silent. The just-released “Draft Statement of University Values and Voice” designated free expression as a core institutional value, adding that academic freedom “allows the University to govern itself free from internal or external pressures.” It is difficult to conceive of a greater external pressure than federal law enforcement.
If Brown is to protect freedom of expression on campus, it must proactively foil attempts by the current presidential administration to suppress speech via authoritarian tactics. As a start, the University should implement two key policies: destroying all surveillance footage of campus political demonstration and challenging any subpoena for community members’ records.
Many members of our community may not be aware that as of March 2021, the University maintained a network of approximately 800 surveillance cameras. The potential for this network to be used for disciplinary purposes became evident during last April’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment when Provost Francis Doyle alluded to their use in warning faculty against participation in the encampment. Under the Trump administration, there is an increasing risk that these records could be obtained by federal officials and misused to identify and prosecute its political opponents.
To address this concern, the University should commit to destroying any existing recordings of political demonstration and adopting a policy against recording such activities in the future. This should not only apply to fixed security cameras but also to the Department of Public Safety’s apparent ability to deploy drones.
Another potential threat to campus speech comes from the administration’s access to personal records. The House Committee on Education and Workforce has demanded student disciplinary records from Columbia. Though this request was a legislative order rather than an executive one, similar requests from the Department of Justice or Immigration and Customs Enforcement are not out of the realm of possibility.
Brown’s current policy states that a community member’s immigration status will be shared only “under a valid subpoena.” While this offers some protection, the University ought to go further by committing to challenge any federal request for records in court. With far greater resources than any individual, Brown is well positioned to take the government to court and quash illegitimate subpoenas. If President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20 is serious about protecting the freedom to “study, examine and debate” at Brown, she should explicitly promise students, faculty and staff that the University will defend community members from harassment aimed at restricting free speech through the legal system.
The University must protect its community as an increasingly authoritarian regime in Washington continues to stifle speech. If Brown’s administration is truly committed to the value of free expression, it must do everything in its power to ensure community members are not silenced. It is further incumbent on them not to remain silent about the gravity of these threats while proactively working to combat them.
Michael Ziegler GS is the president of labor union Local 6516. He can be reached at michael_ziegler@brown.edu. Please send responses to this op-ed to letters@browndailyherald.com and other opinions to opinions@browndailyherald.com.
