A message to STHE members and faculty governance bodies on the DOE letter

August 2026

On August 3 the Secretary of Education asked every college and university in the country to publish a statement, before the end of 2026, addressing seven subjects, including admissions criteria, faculty hiring and evaluation, academic standards and grading, and the direction of institutional research.

Three responses have followed. The AAUP and AFT have urged institutions not to respond. The Alliance for Higher Education and PEN America, in A Call for Unity, have urged institutions not to respond in isolation, but to develop a unified posture with peer institutions. Higher education attorneys quoted in Inside Higher Ed have counseled clients to answer broadly and stay off the administration’s radar.

STHE will have more to say about the pros and cons of responding in due course.

However, we are crystal clear on one thing:
There should be no decision or response without faculty involvement.

What A Call for Unity urges presidents and boards to say: that their institution's research is truth-seeking rather than partisan; that it supports courses and programs in particular fields; what its values are on grading and assessment; what it means by excellence; and how it hires. Curriculum, faculty status, and academic standards are precisely the subjects that the 1966 Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities—formulated jointly by the AAUP, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Governing Boards—assigns to faculty primary responsibility.

The Governing Board and the President decide whether and how the institution responds. But a decision to make a public representation about the university’s academic mission, under federal pressure, is not an ordinary administrative matter, and shared governance calls for faculty consultation and involvement before it is made. And no institutional representation about curriculum, faculty status, or academic standards should be published without faculty governance having helped shape it and concurred that it is accurate.

We urge faculty senates and other governance bodies to ask their presidents and boards, in writing,
to not make any decision on whether or how to respond to the DOE letter without first consulting with faculty governance.  

You can explain that what an institution says this fall about how it hires, what it teaches, and what its scholars study will stand as its public account of itself. It will be read by the Department, by legislatures, and by whoever comes next. A statement of that consequence should not be assembled by an administration alone. It should come from the people who do the work and the community that depends on it: faculty, staff, students, and the governing board, each according to their proper role. That is what shared governance is for, and this is the moment it exists to meet.