Editor’s Note: This article was updated April 1 at 10:17 p.m. to add a statement from the University and to note that the letter was sent to USC officials on Tuesday.

The USC chapter of the American Association of University Professors circulated an open letter addressed to President Carol Folt and Provost Andrew Guzman with a list of demands related to the Trump administration’s recent actions. 

The demands included covering researchers’ payroll in the event that federal funding is suspended and establishing clearer policies about academic freedom, as well as clearer policies regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity on campus. 

The letter was written by faculty and co-sponsored by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, Service Employees International Union Local 721 and USC Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation — an advocacy group not affiliated with the University. The letter accumulated over 250 signatures from USC faculty, staff and students at the time of publication of this article. SEIU Local 721 represents janitors and USC Housing employees among other staff, while NUHW represents many employees of Keck Hospital of USC.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan on Tuesday, Christina Dunbar-Hester, president of the USC chapter of AAUP as well as a professor of communication, said the letter was sent Tuesday morning to University administration. USC-AAUP posted the letter to its website Monday afternoon.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan on Tuesday, the University confirmed it had received the letter.

“We believe our campus communications on financial resilience, executive orders and other related matters provide our community with clear and up-to-date information,” the University wrote.

SEIU Local 721, USC SCALE and the NUHW did not respond to the Daily Trojan’s request to comment in time for publication.

USC-AAUP wrote in the letter that the University should not “serve as a deputy for government enforcement” by responding to executive orders with what it felt was premature compliance, citing legal challenges to recent policies such as cuts to indirect funding. 

“We are extremely disquieted by the clear political intrusions into, indeed in some cases threats against, the safety and livelihood of USC’s community, including faculty, staff, and students, as well as the academic freedom in research and teaching that is the [foundation] of a university,” the letter read.

The letter demanded a policy that “affirms USC’s commitment to academic freedom,” including protecting topics such as colonialism and sexuality. Many research projects have been targeted for allegedly being related to diversity, equity and inclusion values. 

“These new demands and policies issued by the Trump administration are not a strategy to renew the public mission of higher education, which many of us might welcome,” USC-AAUP wrote. “What is currently being carried out is a massive, deliberate assault against higher education as a center of critical inquiry and independent thought and research.”

The letter called for the University not to share information about students with federal agencies based on students’ potential political views. It also demanded a policy about ICE’s presence on campus that “affirms community members’ rights” as well as “specific, concrete guidance” to the USC community on what to do if ICE attempts to detain community members on campus.

According to the University’s current policy, faculty, staff and other covered personnel should immediately contact the Department of Public Safety if they suspect ICE has entered or will enter campus to detain a person.

USC-AAUP also wrote that it felt “grave disappointment” that the University changed its “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” unifying value to “Community” and that it integrated the Office of Inclusion and Diversity into the Culture Team.

“Instead of holding firm and recommitting USC to our values, you chose to obey a directive that may well be illegal,” the letter read. “Such a move does not merely pertain to a few words on websites: it leaves us fearful regarding which core values will be the next to be so quickly and easily surrendered.”

In an interview with the Daily Trojan, Dunbar-Hester referenced the University’s decision to change its DEI unifying value as an example of what she felt was not directly necessary to comply with legal regulations and should be a “campus-led conversatio[n]” instead.

“I would hope that administrators would be having more of a campus-wide conversation about some of this,” Dunbar-Hester said. “For [USC-AAUP], it was important to, at least for the historical record, put this out there. If it prompts a response from the administration, that’s great.”

Dunbar-Hester said she “really appreciated” the response by Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber, who has publicly criticized some of the Trump administration’s actions, including the cancellation of $400 million of federal funding from Columbia University. 

Dunbar-Hester acknowledged that USC administrators “are in a tough position,” but said they receive significant guidance from lawyers and lobbyists and they could utilize the unique expertise that historians among the faculty have.

“The thought that ‘If you keep your head down, it won’t come for you’ is historically not borne out,” Dunbar-Hester said. “We’re ready to fight for the institution, and we need to feel like leadership is doing that too, and not just behind the scenes but also publicly … We need leadership and we need banding together, and so I really hope our administrators take that up.”