The American Association of University Professors chapter at the University of Minnesota organized a postcard writing campaign to urge President Rebecca Cunningham to defend higher education against recent attacks on research funding, academic freedom and international students. 

The effort launched on May 5  with the chapter standing in front of Coffman Union to encourage passersby to sign cards imploring Cunningham to join with universities across the country to establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact, said Elaine Auyoung, associate professor in the department of English. 

The action is a coalitional effort between AAUP and members of the Stand Up for Science, 50501 and Indivisible movements. 

“In just one hour, our group was able to collect over 200 postcards signed by UMN students, employees, and alumni,” Auyoung said in an email statement to the Minnesota Daily. 

The initiative is an ongoing process, said ecology professor Ruth Shaw.  Shaw said, now that the campaign has started, the AAUP has begun sending small batches of ten cards to the office of the president.

The Mutual Academic Defense Compact of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, proposed by the Rutgers University faculty senate, is a resolution calling on eighteen institutions to pool their resources against federal threats to higher education. 

While the faculty senate voted on April 25 to join the compact, the University itself has yet to do the same. The University of Minnesota faculty senate is one of ten faculty senates that have voted to join the alliance.

AAUP Member and associate sociology professor Elizabeth Wrigley-Field said that growing this compact among universities across America is essential in preventing any individual institution from being targeted.

“There has been a movement at universities all across the United States … to say that we need to unite,”  Wrigley-Field said. “If we’re resisting alone, we can be targeted. And so the question of ‘How do you break out of that dynamic?’ is the central strategic question that institutions of all kinds are facing.”

In February, the U.S. Department of Education directed higher educational institutions to end diversity and inclusion practices. In March, the department launched an investigation against the University of Minnesota, along with several other universities, citing allegations of antisemitism. 

Refusal to comply with the standards the department outlined has culminated in threats to funding, accreditation, and non-profit status, the loss of which could put jobs at risk for not only faculty, but every University worker across the state.

Wrigley-Field was one of the first to cast her vote in favor of the resolution.

 “It was clear to me that the University Senate is not always on the same page, which makes sense, you know,” Wrigley-Field said. “We had lots of divided votes about lots of different things, but this vote was absolutely clear. We were absolutely united.” 

In addition to the postcard effort, the executive committee of the AAUP wrote letters to Cunningham urging the administration to take a clear stance against federal threats. However, Cunningham has yet to acknowledge these demands. 

Wrigley-Field said the response from undergraduates, alumni and even community members who are not associated with the University has been overwhelmingly supportive. 

“Community members who don’t necessarily have a direct tie to the U … are really enthusiastic about the idea of being able to … tell the U, ‘We want you to stand up for us’,” Wrigley-Field said. “‘We know that you, the University of Minnesota, are really important for what happens in the State, and we want you to defend yourself, because that’s also defending us.’”

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Elaine Auyoung’s last name as Auyong. The correct spelling is Auyoung.