Rubble Not Opportunity: Let’s Sound the Alarm Against the Dismantling of Scientific Research!
CommentiThe arts and scientific research shall be free of constraint. Academic freedom shall be respected (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, 2009). In the current political scenario of continuous attacks on academic freedom by resurgent nationalisms and populist movements, in Europe as well as in the United States, now more than ever it is important to remember this statement and sound the alarm.
In a context in which President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education and threatens universities with funding cuts, vice-president J.D. Vance has stated that ‘universities are the enemy’, and European countries are increasing political control over universities, now more than ever everyone must stand up to defend academic freedom. Independence, which represents the fundamental principle of the Magna Charta Universitatum declaration, and upon which the mission of universities should be based.
Declaration signed by several European and US universities stating that ‘research and teaching must be intellectually and morally independent of all political influence and economic interests’. Exactly what Trump administration and other authoritarians and one-party states would like to stop.
The progressing disruption of scientific research in the United States is undermining decades of research investment pushing scientists to seek opportunities in foreign countries. While it could represent an opportunity for researchers and scholars elsewhere, the growth in different countries of political parties that see the action of Trump’s administration as an example should alert that what is happening there could be replicated elsewhere, creating rubble not opportunity.
As write Prof. Tomaso Montanari in his latest book (Libera Università, Einaudi), ‘…hatred for universities and their autonomy is usually part of a larger hatred. That of democracy.’ Universities must reclaim their public mission because they are important not only to students and faculty. Universities are essential for all citizens.
