‘We will not be silenced’: FAM, Ohio Student Association hold speak-out rally

Across the country, the Coalition for Action in Higher Education held a National Day of Action on April 17 to “speak out against the attacks on academic freedom,” according to an Instagram post from The Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM).

FAM and the Ohio Student Association (OSA) collaborated on a speak-out rally as part of the National Day of Action.

This will be the second time in April where mass protests across the U.S. have also occurred in Oxford.

According to the coalition’s website, 43 states participated, excluding: West Virginia, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

The rally started at noon and went past 1:15 p.m., with roughly 50 people in attendance throughout the hour.

Theresa Kulbaga, an English professor and lead negotiator and chair of communications for FAM, said Miami’s rally is focusing on threats from the federal government, from the state government and from Miami’s administration to the central educational mission of the University, especially the liberal education mission.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

“Our central idea today is that education is a human right and a public good,” Kulbaga said. “It's not something that can be commodified and sold off to employers. And those of us who are educators, and I think a lot of students as well, appreciate that it's a public institution, and it should act like it's serving [the] public, the people, not politicians.”

The rally focused on S.B. 1 and other state threats to higher education, Miami's new corporate budget model, top-down rebranding the regionals as "Miami Polytechnic,” standing with international students and faculty, higher workloads threatening Miami’s educational mission, cuts to research funding, education as a public good, and threats to libraries and library funding, according to a FAM press release.

Pixie Menezes, secretary of the Ohio Student Association and a junior organizational leadership and sociology major, helped organize the event.

She said the idea that higher education should be a place for freedom, justice and truth is being challenged, and it's important to stand up before it becomes too late.

The speakers

More than 10 speakers addressed the group in front of Shriver Center, ranging from Menezes, who spoke first on behalf of the OSA, to Jerry Yarnetsky about S.B. 1, Jason Adams, the vice president for the college Democrats and several other professors and students.

Photo by Kiser Young | The Miami Student
More than 50 people gather outside of the Shriver Center for the speak-out.

During his speech, Adams said he was there because he was “terrified for the future of our country, for the future of our education,” in response to the Trump administration threatening protesters with suspension, expulsion or even deportation for international students.

He finished by saying, “You showed up to say that one man cannot silence us … Injustice must be met with intolerance.”

During the speeches, each between two and five minutes, there was a chorus of chants from the crowd, led by one of the FAM members.

“Stand up, fight back,” and “hands off higher ed” were two of the most common chants.

Andie Karrenbauer, a senior social work major, wrote a testimony for S.B. 1 and encouraged everyone to “come curious and leave furious.”

Elena Jackson Albarrán, a professor of global and intercultural studies and history, followed Karrenbauer, opening up the speeches to environmental injustices being enacted by the national administration.

“President Trump issues an emergency order to open all national forests for logging to boost timber production,” Albarrán said. “Supporters of this say that trees are renewable. They can be replaced. Just plant another one, and it'll grow … Education, like [a] national forest, is a public good; a university, like a forest, is an ecosystem, a protector like a tree cannot ‘thrive.’ Elimination of programs and departments that do not prioritize processes is a slash and burn approach to solving [the problem] …”

Other speakers touched on antisemitism, international students and the connection between artistic freedom and academic freedom. University librarian Rachel Makarowski shouted, “Hands off our books, hands off our data, hands off our university,” and repeated “hands off higher ed” four times.

Keara Keller, a senior education studies and psychology double major, attended because she said she’s “deeply opposed to S.B. 1, and the implications it will have for future students at Miami and all students in Ohio and beyond that.”

Not only did she attend to stand in support of faculty, but Keller added that her major, education studies, is one in danger of being cut.

A crowd gathers to hear Jerry Yaretsky speak about speaking out against injustice.

“Crawford has been very silent about all of this,” Keller said. “And I think part of the reason we're here is to say we need clarity on how this is going to impact our university. We need clarity on what our powers will be, what professor's agency is going to be, what staff agency is going to be. I feel like we're just asking these big questions and saying, you know, we're not going to go silently.”

Before leaving, FAM announced that a referendum petition in opposition to S.B. 1 was there to be signed, as well. Kulbaga called it a “long shot.”

stumbata@miamioh.edu