Sociologist Daniel Laurison ’99 Calls on Academics to Stand Up for Democracy
Associate Professor of Sociology Daniel Lauison ’99 recently authored an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer as part of a series entitled You Can't Teach That, an examination of the challenges facing Philadelphia-area professors and administrators as they navigate a "regime hostile to academia."
Laurison argues that too few college and university leaders have stood up to the Trump administration's attacks on "diversity and pluralism, scholarship and learning, academic freedom, and democracy itself." To address this, he helped draft a letter, which has since gained 4,300 signatures, to urge colleagues in higher education to affirm the following principles:
- The democratic ideals of free thought, free speech, free association, freedom of assembly and the right to dissent are worth fighting for.
- Education is a fundamental pillar of a democratic society.
- Diversity is essential.
- Education, knowledge, and science are intrinsically worthwhile.
- Academic freedom is necessary to the pursuit of knowledge.
- No amount of accommodation or compliance will protect us.
Laurison, the director of the Healthy, Equitable, and Responsive Democracy Research Initiative (HEARD), is also member of We Are Higher Ed, a group that collects and disseminate news and resources for the fight for higher education. He says that organizations like these, and others, are imperative in combating the escalating attacks on colleges and universities.
"We need to protect students, faculty, and our communities from government reprisals, and to fight attacks on our institutions and democracy in the public sphere, in the legal arena, and through nonviolent civil disobedience and protest," Laurison writes.
"To do that, we will need to be organized. We should all work on our campuses and beyond, with organizations like the American Association of University Professors, Stand Up for Science, and Stand Together for Higher Ed. Use your voice and your expertise to keep one of the pillars of a free and functioning democracy as intact as possible."
