As an alumnus of UAS I am disgusted at how fast the University of Alaska Board of Regents, threw all but the white, straight people under the bus at the first threat from the Trump administration to cut funding. Shameful. How sincere could your diversity and inclusion commitment have been?
My head spins. The opposite of inclusion is exclusion — exclusion creates supremacy. Instead of standing up for our “diverse” brothers and sisters you have cast them out for a buck. You didn’t fight, you didn’t even grumble, you crumbled. Where are your values? Silence is acceptance. Compliance is collusion. Like Bezos and Zuckerberg, you are the Trump administration. You capitulated on the most basic tenets of American democracy, that we are all created equal, and we are free to speak our minds. You washed our free speech and dignity from all your documentation and internet presence. You’ve given up your discretion and your independence.
Once you capitulate, they own you. You will teach what they tell you to teach, and you won’t teach what they tell you not to. They are already telling you what you can say and what you cannot say. And Trump/Musk will eventually cut your funding anyway. Like the press, America’s universities play an integral role in safeguarding our freedoms and you gave it up in a New York minute. Where is your leadership? Do you teach your students to roll over at the first hint of adversity?
The University of Alaska has lost its credibility. You are not to be trusted. You say you offer an open and welcoming environment to all, you say you are committed to academic freedom, yet you erase all references to those notions from your public position and curriculum. It’s not what you say, it is what you do. How could you have gotten this so wrong? You have no principles. Until now I was very proud of my time spent at UAS and my diploma, now I am sending my diploma back.
• Rick Bierman has been an Alaskan for 49 years. He is a graduate of the University of Alaska Southeast-Juneau class of 1993 Magna Cum Laude.
