To members of the Johns Hopkins University community:
In March of this year, we marked five years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Sadly, in January of this year, we observed the start of another grave assault on our nation’s well-being, an assault brought about not by a virus, but by the orders and actions of the current presidential administration.
In 2020, thanks to its position as a leader in science, research, and medicine, Hopkins was in a unique position to address the dangers posed by the coronavirus, and the University’s response during those dark days made us proud. In 2025, the University’s position as a leader in higher education and a respected voice of reason in an age of hyperbole and knee-jerk reaction, once again places it in a unique position to speak truth to power, to influence public policy and to safeguard our society at large.
In recent months, the University has worked diligently to address the myriad and unprecedented attacks by the Trump Administration on higher education in America. We applaud Hopkins President Ron Daniels’s March 4 statement underlining the University’s commitment to academic freedom. And we are heartened that Hopkins has joined 12 peer research universities, along with the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, in filing a lawsuit to block sudden and significant cuts to research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
At the same time, we are distressed by a recent social media story with this headline: “Johns Hopkins tells faculty not to ‘intervene’ in ICE raids.” The story in The Baltimore Banner reported that a memo circulating on campus had advised professors not to help students hide from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. In truth, the backstory of that memo is far more complicated than the headline would suggest. The memo was intended to provide narrow legal guidance and to warn professors that tangling with ICE would put them in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration. It was issued in February, before ICE began detaining students with valid visas and green cards.
But does the backstory of the memo matter anymore? Anyone who is paying attention to Hopkins today may well have the impression that the university is unwilling to resist the Trump administration’s unparalleled attacks on higher education.
We are Hopkins alumni who call on the University to step up and protect the most vulnerable members of our community. We are endorsing all activities that help protect international students, faculty and staff during ICE raids. Such activities might include know-your-rights training sessions for those who are vulnerable as well as training for bystanders who witness the intimidation of anyone on or near campus.
We also ask that the leadership of Hopkins issue an explicit statement outlining how it will uphold our national laws that protect free speech and equal access to education. In light of recent high-profile ICE detentions, we believe it is time for Johns Hopkins to make it clear to the community, and the wider public, that it will refuse to cooperate with executive orders that contradict existing laws of the land.
We urge the university to follow the guidelines recently issued by the American Civil Liberties Union that spell out what higher-education institutions must do in order to protect civil rights. Nothing obligates universities to act as deputies in immigration law enforcement. According to existing law, universities are obligated to protect the privacy of all students, including immigrant and international students. Public universities are bound by the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection, and both public and almost all private universities are bound by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal financial assistance on the basis of “race, color, or national origin.”
We are proud of the University’s long record of academic excellence, research and scientific achievement, and medical breakthroughs. Hopkins has reached its esteemed position largely because it is an international hub, attracting people from all over the world who are passionate about ideas, diversity, and the pursuit of truth.
As Hopkins alumni, we extend our support to everyone on campus who is committed to defending scientific inquiry, free speech, and the safety of all community members. We know it is difficult. We see you and we’re with you.
Gina Apostol, M.A. ’88
Jennifer Boylan, M.A. ’86
John Gregory Brown, M.A. ’88
Stephen Deets, B.A. ’88
Dan Dubelman, M.A. ’88
Dale Keiger, M.L.A. ’11, editor emeritus, Johns Hopkins Magazine
Pagan Kennedy, M.A. ’88
Michael Martone, M.A. ’79
Paul Murphy, B.A. ’84, M.A. ’88
Caragh O’Brien, M.A. ’88
Janet Sayre, B.A. ’89
Lizzie Skurnick, M.A. ’99
Chi Chi Wu, B.A. ’89
Jenny Xie, M.F.A. ’15
The writers are alumni of Johns Hopkins University.
