Michigan Technological University Board of Trustees 2025-02-21

Michigan Tech Board of Trustees
Sarah Green, Calumet Township
2025-02-21

I am Sarah Green, professor emerita and former chair of chemistry. Although I am still involved in several research grants here, today I speak as a concerned citizen.

Thank you for your attention and for your dedicated service to Michigan Tech. It’s exciting to see Tech achieve R1 status after many years of research growth.

I’m here today to address a threat to our democratic institutions, for which universities serve a vital role.
The checks and balances embedded in the constitution are under attack.

The president is claiming the power to overturn the wishes of congress by freezing funds that have already been appropriated.
A private businessman and his unvetted associates have gained access to computer systems of the IRS, Social Security, and Treasury in what experts are calling “most consequential security breach in US history.”
The more than 9000 federal workers employed in Michigan’s 1st congressional district are being threatened, an unknown number have been illegally fired. Many are Michigan Tech graduates; about 30% are veterans

You are already aware that recent capricious, malicious, and ill-conceived policy reversals and executive orders are causing chaos and uncertainty for students, staff, and faculty. Research grants, student scholarships and stipends, internships, and job prospects have become precarious and unpredictable. Long standing relationships with federal agencies, such as the Forest Service are being abruptly severed, leaving students in the lurch.
I know you are grappling with this unstable situation, which is unambiguously designed to through you off-balance.

As you juggle the day to day management of this crisis, I urge you to keep the bigger picture in mind. We are not witnessing the normal push and pull of citizens in a democracy. This attack on government institutions fits the definition of an administrative coup. Very similar scenarios have played out in both left and right-leaning regimes, such as Venezuela, Turkey, and others. The results have been hollowed out democracies, where “elected” autocrats rig the system against opposition parties, and become despots.

Under these regimes, universities, as beacons of critical inquiry, become targets. Funding is allocated not by merit but by patronage, and schools are coerced into toeing a political line in research, teaching, and cultural activities.

In doing what seems best for the institution, university boards and presidents may acquiesce to escalating political demands or self-censor just at the moment they are most needed as leaders of freedom.

Institutions have values, but they do not have courage. People do. I implore you to use yours.