By Timothy Hill (Policy and Values) and Amanda Irions (Communication)
Even though the Rev. Dr. Robert L. Polk graduated from Doane in 1952, he continues to influence the Doane community today.
Polk’s first application to Doane was rejected because administrators believed, wrongly, that White Doane students would refuse a Black roommate. With his Doane degree in hand, Polk embarked on a career building bridges of understanding, inclusion, and equity among people of different races and cultures.
In 2016, Doane University honored Polk and his groundbreaking legacy of racial integration by establishing an annual lecture series in his name that brought thinkers and doers to Doane to share their perspectives about how we can continue his work. In May 2024, Doane named the outdoor theatre at the newly completed Brodie Residence Hall in Polk’s honor.
We write today to lift, celebrate and defend what enabled and inspired Polk’s contributions: a Doane education.
Unfortunately, a Doane education, like educations at all other American colleges and universities, is being attacked by politicians who want to restrict students’ freedom to study what they want, to eliminate faculty’s freedom to teach the best and most current information available using the best available materials and methods, and to eliminate universities’ freedom to operate without interference from agenda-pushing politicians.
These politicians, many of whom are guns-for-hire paid with dark money wielded by billionaire families, want to return us to the days that Polk helped end — the days where universities can refuse education to people simply because they are the wrong color, from the wrong country, or believe the wrong thing. And these politicians have been succeeding.
Consider, for example, that in 2023, the most recent year for which information is available, state legislatures contributed more money per student to state universities for only the second time since the 2008 recession. Consider also that this per-student increase in funding was possible because fewer students attended college that year. After remembering that the Trump Administration has tightly restricted forgiving federal student-loan debt, it becomes clear that one outcome of these politicians’ efforts is that only people from the wealthiest families will be able to afford college.
Consider that, closer to home, Gov. Pillen proposed reducing Nebraska University’s budget by nearly $30 million in the next two years to make up a nearly $200 million budget shortfall — despite signing two bills into law in 2023 that gave tax breaks to corporations and the highest earners in the state.
Or consider that State Sen. Loren Lippincott has again this year introduced another bill (LB 551) that, by his admission, aims to discourage free expression and academic freedom on public campuses.
Some may think that Doane’s status as a private, not public, institution immunizes it from these attacks. Unfortunately, the current administration has been inserting partisan policy ideas into the work and grant contracts it requires universities to sign.
Therefore, in the spirit of Polk uniting and fortifying the communities he was part of, and in recognition that education is a civil right, we ask you to join with us and students, staff, and faculty around the country on April 17, the National Day of Action for Higher Education. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP, to which we belong) sponsors this day because it defends the freedom of faculty to teach the best information using the best methods and created by the best scholarship possible. That means that the AAUP also defends students’ freedom to learn free from political interference.
On Thursday, we ask you to take some time — even five minutes makes a difference! — to defend higher education. Here are some ways to get involved:
• Visit dayofactionforhighered.org to see if there are any events taking place in your area.
• Call your state and federal representatives and ask them to allocate a larger portion of the budget to higher education, defend tenure, and defend students’ First Amendment rights to free speech and protest;
• Use your social media accounts to express solidarity with institutions whose academic freedom has been targeted by government actors at the federal and state levels; and
• Value your Doane education: Go to each class meeting, read every page, and give your best efforts to your academic work. No one can ever take from you that which you have learned.
On Thursday, April 17, we’ll be doing our part to protect higher education, and we hope you’ll join us.
Dr. Hill is the president and Dr. Irions is the secretary-treasurer of the Doane chapter of AAUP.
