Statements to the Michigan Technological University Board of Trustees
As part of my efforts to connect at as many local meetings as I can, I’ve spoken twice during the public comment period at the Board of Trustees meeting for Michigan Technological University. I’ve included both statements, April and February, below. Feel free to use my words in your own efforts to demand courage from your institutions
For the record, President Koubek’s name still does not appear on the AACU letter, which today shows 565 sigatures.
April, 25 2025
Statement to the Michigan Tech Board of Trustees
2025-04-25
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 and outraged citizen.
Graduation is always an exciting time as newly minted alumni are launched into the world. However, this year they are heading into a profoundly uncertain future.
Graduates who aspired to careers of public service have been discarded as expendable, being fired from agencies that protect our health, improve our environment, design our infrastructure, manage our financial system, and conduct fundamental research.
Future graduates are having opportunities yanked from under them as visas are revoked with no explanation or research grants are canceled.
But this threat is far greater than the loss of a few jobs or grants.
Our democratic institutions are under attack. Historians, political scientists, economists, journalists, and leaders from across the political spectrum are raising the alarm that we are seeing a rapid authoritarian take-over of our system of government.
This is an emergency. I feel like I’m watching coyote suspended in the air after running off the cliff.
We are seeing ruthless and unprincipled attacks on research institutions, the press, and universities, in short any place that encourages critical thinking.
The easy response to this chaos for board members like yourselves is to make a few concessions, then a few more. But that’s a dangerous slope; with each capitulation the bullies return to demand more.
The only way to stop bullies and mobsters is to band together and fight back.
As of this morning, 443 university presidents have signed a letter “speak[ing] with one voice against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”
President Koubek’s name was not on this letter.
I urge the university to be fully transparent about government pressures, including the number of revoked visas, impacted grants and other impacts.
I urge you to join and support efforts to oppose the illegal attacks on universities.
I’ll finish with a few words from journalist Adrienne LaFrance who interviewed numerous people who have lived under dictators and autocrats:
Today, right now—and I mean right this second--you have the most power you’ll ever have in the current fight against authoritarianism in America. Authoritarian leaders topple democracy faster than you can imagine. If you wait to speak out against them, you have already lost. (Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic, 2025)Februray 21, 2025
Statement to the Michigan Tech Board of Trustees
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.