Chapman Solidarity
Updated June 17, 2025

Welcome to the Chapman Faculty Solidarity Web page.  Members of Solidarity came together to catalog, analyze, and resist the current US administration’s assault on the values we share as teachers and as United States citizens. 

Our Mission: Chapman University faculty created Solidarity to explore how we will act collectively to address the Trump administration’s assault on education, on science and the arts, on the environment and our health, on our civil rights and freedom of expression, and on democracy and the rule of law. We believe that, as university faculty, we are called upon to resist that assault. 

To that end, Solidarity will share insights, events, and proposed actions by our professional organizations.  We will organize forums open to students, staff, and administrators. We will work together with the faculty of other colleges and universities to find ways to protect the rights of immigrants and refugees, to protect our environment, and to uphold academic freedom, the rule of law, and our shared moral and ethical values. 

Solidarity’s blog page, where we share coming events, is here.  This page includes useful and related links.

Solidarity Events
Allied Organizations
Faculty and University Statements of Solidarity
Take Action
News Stories Detailing the Administration’s Assault on Education & Science
Relevant Opinions

 

Solidarity Events

·       “Echoes, Rhymes, & Contrasts:  1930s Germany & the US Today.”  A two-day conference at Chapman.  The tentative dates are February 20-21, 2026.

·       No Kings Day rally – on Glassell off Bert Williams Mall at Chapman.  June 14, 2025. 

·       Chris Kluwe visits Chapman. Celebrated former Minnesota Vikings kicker, arrested after peacefully protesting at a Huntington Beach city council meeting.  April 24, 2025. 

Allied Organizations:

·       Indivisible.  “Our democracy is under threat. But we will not yield to fascism. We will stand together and we'll fight back in defense of our rights, our communities, and our values. Join us.”

·       50501.  “Join us in the fight to uphold the Constitution and to end executive overreach.”

·       AAUP.  “American Association of University Professors: Advancing academic freedom and shared governance; defining professional values and standards; promoting the economic security of those who teach and research in higher education; organizing to make our goals a reality; and ensuring higher education’s contributions to the common good.”

·       Pen America. “The Freedom to Write: PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world.”

·       Union of Concerned Scientists:  Science for people and the planet. The Union of Concerned Scientists is a member-supported nonprofit that’s fighting for a safer and healthier world.”

 

Faculty and University Statements of Solidarity

·       Big Ten Mutual Defense Pact:  Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact for the Universities of the  Big Ten Academic Alliance in Defense of Academic Freedom, Institutional Integrity, and the Research Enterprise.

·       UMass Resolution to Establish Mutual Defense Pacts among land-grant universities.

·       Harvard University’s response to Trump demands. “[D]emands that, in contravention of the First Amendment, invade university freedoms long recognized by the Supreme Court. The government’s terms also circumvent Harvard’s statutory rights by requiring unsupported and disruptive remedies for alleged harms that the government has not proven through mandatory processes established by Congress and required by law.”

Take Action

·       Contact Young Kim, who represents the 40th congressional district, which includes Chapman. (714) 984-2440.   

·       Indivisible Rallies every Tuesday, 5:30-7:30pm, in the Orange Circle (Glassell & Chapman). 

News Stories Detailing the Administration’s Assault on Education & Science

·       Scientific American:  Top U.S. Scientists Speak Out against ‘Climate of Fear’ Wrecking U.S. Research.” 3/31/2025.

·       NPR: “All the ways the Trump administration is going after colleges and universities.” 6/10/2025

·       Rewire News Group: “‘I’ve Never Seen Such a Threat on Higher Ed’: How Universities Are Fighting Trump’s Attacks.” 6/13/2025

 

 

Relevant Opinions

 

·       Guardian: “Why a professor of fascism left the US: ‘The lesson of 1933 is – you get out’”

·       Guardian:  Robert Reich – “Americans disagree on much, but this week we have found common ground.” An ode to solidarity. 

·       Guardian: “We Are Witnessing the First Stages of a Police State.”

·       Washington Post: “They are not good at this: Nearly five months into Trump’s new reign of error, his administration’s mistakes are multiplying.”

·       Guardian:  Stop bending the knee to Trump: it’s time for anticipatory noncompliance”

·       Washington Post: “This is what a war on knowledge looks like”

 

 

This page is maintained by Richard Ruppel.  Address any questions or suggestions to ruppel@chapman.edu. 

 

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