Statement from Concerned Faculty of Boston University School of Law
To the Boston University School of Law Community
Date: May 2025
To: Boston University Law School Students and Community
From: The Undersigned Members of the Boston University School of Law Faculty
Note: the following statement reflects the views and commitments of the signers and is not an official document of Boston University School of Law.
We write both to give you information and to share our thoughts about current events affecting Boston University and Boston University School of Law. Recent actions of the administration are having a profound effect on the University and the Law School. These attacks endanger the independence of universities by threatening to put them under government receivership, to require them to give up their freedom to teach and conduct research, and to punish free speech on campus for both students and faculty. Consider the following:
1. The federal administration has issued an executive order (currently enjoined) which would reduce overhead rates on research grants and has cancelled billions of dollars of grants to research universities. Boston University’s grants amount to almost 25% of its revenues. These grants support not only teaching but also critical research into infectious disease, vaccines, climate change, poverty, AI, and renewable energy, to name a few. Although the School of Law is not heavily grant-dependent, we do depend on the University’s financial resources. Research grants to Boston University have already been canceled. Should many more of these grants be canceled, we [BU] would have to cut our budget significantly, maybe even drastically.
2. The administration has been targeting international students. Visas have been canceled without notice. Some have been canceled because the students exercised their free speech rights. Others have been canceled over minor traffic infractions. And frankly, we don’t know why some others were canceled. These actions are manifestly unjust and exert great harm to individuals and their communities. Moreover, the loss of international students will be a major blow to the University. Masters programs at the Law School and throughout the University have large enrollments of international students who provide invaluable perspectives in the classroom. As a global institution, BU has made long-term investments in providing education to international students, and attacks on the project of welcoming international students undermines those commitments at tremendous cost to the University. The climate of fear created by revocation of student visas and by deportation of other immigrants to a brutal prison in El Salvador without due process understandably discourages prospective students from coming to the United States.
3. The administration and its allies in Congress have made unreasonable and intrusive demands for information. One of these demands was directed at clinical programs at Northwestern University School of Law, threatening the clinic for its representation of clients based on their political viewpoints. We understand that the rule of law is in jeopardy when a government punishes or threatens lawyers based on their lawful and ethical representation of clients disfavored by that government.
4. The administration has issued Executive Orders targeting trans and non-binary people, and people of color, among others, and challenging initiatives aimed at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. We remain steadfast in our commitment to promoting the liberty, dignity, and well-being of all and to recruiting and welcoming faculty, staff, and students with a diversity of backgrounds, identities, and experiences. We continue to believe that a learning environment where students and faculty and staff all come from the same backgrounds and experiences is an impoverished learning environment.
5. The administration is threatening Harvard’s tax status as a nonprofit educational institution. This issue will undoubtedly be litigated, but it nevertheless indicates that the administration is willing to do almost anything to destroy the academic independence of our universities.
6. The administration has threatened to change tax rules to tax university endowments. Endowments allow for essential long-term planning and the earnings support student aid and the university’s critical infrastructure. Depleting it and returning higher taxes to the federal government would divert necessary funds from BU’s essential mission.
All of these actions truly represent an existential threat to higher education and to Boston University. Universities are sites of independent research and pursuit of knowledge and understanding, where democratic values are promoted through information gathering, study, critical thinking and analysis, and engagement with a diversity of perspectives. As such, universities can be a threat to authoritarian ambition.
Here is one thing we want you to know: we, the undersigned faculty, will not abandon our mission to educate our students, to ensure academic freedom and freedom of expression, and to protect all of our students, including our international and immigrant students, even in the face of these unprecedented government actions. As lawyers and legal educators, we support the independent practice of law, and we stand with the lawyers and law firms that have been targeted by unlawful executive actions. We will continue to work together in support of the rule of law and principles of equal justice, due process, and intellectual freedom. We stand with our colleagues in the sciences and other grant-dependent units at Boston University. We will continue speaking out and working with the larger legal community to resist attacks by the administration on these foundational principles, which are necessary for a functioning democracy. This administration’s attacks on universities, law firms, attorneys, and the judiciary simply must be resisted. And we will resist.
We know these are tough times. We wanted you to know the extent of the threat and what is at stake. We hope we can all stand and fight together.
Sincerely,
Stephen Marks, Professor of Law
Katharine Silbaugh, Professor of Law
Caitlin Glass, Visiting Lecturer and Clinical Instructor
Maureen Tracy Leo, Director of International Graduate Programs and Lecturer of Law
Stacey Dogan, Professor of Law
Jarrod Reich, Senior Lecturer
Frederick Tung, Professor of Law
Gerry Leonard, Professor of Law
Aziza Ahmed, Professor of Law
Zohra Ahmed, Associate Professor
Angelo Petrigh, Clinical Associate Professor
Julie A. Dahlstrom, Clinical Associate Professor
Jonathan Feingold, Associate Professor
Madison Condon, Associate Professor
Kathleen Luz, Senior Lecturer
Sarah Sherman-Stokes, Clinical Associate Professor
James E. Fleming, Professor of Law
Constance Browne, Clinical Professor
Steve Donweber, Senior Lecturer
Jay Wexler, Professor of Law
Jasmine Gonzales Rose, Professor of Law
Michael Meurer, Professor
Brian Wilson, Senior Lecturer and Clinical Instructor
Marni Goldstein Caputo, Senior Lecturer
Brad Baranowski, Visiting Assistant Professor
Laura D'Amato, Senior Lecturer
Victoria Tang, Lecturer and Clinical Instructor
Jennifer McCloskey, Executive Director, Advocacy & Legal Skills
Linda C. McClain, Robert Kent Professor of Law
Sean Kealy, Clinical Professor of Law
Dianne McCarthy, Adjunct Faculty
Cody Jacobs, Lecturer
Kate Devlin Joyce, Clinical Associate Professor
Jessica Silbey, Professor of Law
Tigran Eldred, Senior Lecturer
Andrew Elmore, Professor of Law
Vivian Etter, Lecturer and Clinical Instructor
Karen J. Pita Loor, Clinical Professor of Law
Erika George, Associate Dean Equity, Justice & Engagement
Jed Shugerman, Professor
Rebecca Pendleton, Lecturer / Faculty Director Two-Year LLM
Claire Abely, Senior Lecturer
Kevin Outterson, Professor
Ngozi Okidegbe, Associate Professor of Law
Madeline Meth, Clinical Associate Professor
Woodrow Hartzog, Professor of Law
Shira Diner, Lecturer and Clinical Instructor
Brooke Arlington, Lecturer
Ronald Wheeler, Associate Dean of Law Libraries & Associate Professor of Law and Legal Research
Naomi Mann, Clinical Professor of Law
Sadiq Reza, Lecturer
Andy Sellars, Clinical Associate Professor
Christina Rice, Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs
Lisa Freudenheim, Associate Professor
Cecily Banks, Senior Lecturer