Dear Reader

Dear Reader,

Last week was a busy week at the Indy.

Indy Readership Expanding
Last week, our number of page views swelled by 92% over the previous week, giving us our most-read edition since our inception with 39,920 page views. This also gave us over 87,000 page views for the last 30 days, also our highest tally since our inception.  Curiously, those numbers were not the result of attracting more readers but rather, from the average number of articles read per visit nearly doubling to almost four. Readers who visited the Indy last week spent more time there.

The bulk of that increase was focused on four articles:
I-91 Overpass Standouts Planned Across Three States by Amherst Indy
What’s Happening in Amherst? by Art and Maura Keene
Updated: Hands Off Massachusetts – Mobilization Against the Trump Musk Agendas, Saturday April 5 by Art Keene
The Western Mass Resistance Calendar and Supplemental Reading List by Art Keene

The I -90 piece grabbed nearly 8000 page views alone while the other three garnered more than 1500 page views apiece.

Clearly there is interest in news about the resistance to the Trump/Musk regime, and especially about actions happening here in Western Mass. We’ll try to step up our coverage of ongoing anti-fascist/pro-democracy efforts. As we have reported in our Western Mass Resistance Calendar and Reading List – and in our occasional column What Now?, resistance is happening all over the place and to good effect. Please continue to send us news of upcoming resistance actions, or links to inspiring reports and analyses for our reading list. And if you are willing to write about the ongoing resistance or the state of democracy, please drop us a note at amherstindy@gmail.com and we’ll help you get started.

Resistance is happening all over the place. Here are some examples.

Overpass Standouts – An Easy Entry into the World of Protest
Indy frequent contributor Maria Kopicki participated in the tri-state I-91 standout on April 25, at the Hatfield Overpass on Mountain Road, one of at least 20 such standouts extending from Enfield, CT to Brattleboro, VT.  She noted in the Indy comment section, “The standout on the overpasses today was great. It’s a good entry into the world of protest. The cars are not close, they’re traveling quickly, and the ratio of happy honks and waves to petulant middle fingers is VERY high.”  These standouts are highly visible reminders of people’s unwillingness to accept the lawlessness of Trump and Musk and are portents of more disruptive actions to come. There are overpass standouts along I-91 every week.  Check the Resistance Calendar for listings.

May Day Around the Country
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the US and around the globe to protest the depredations of the Trump/Musk regime.(see e,g. here, here, and here)  This included large turnouts in Northampton and Springfield.  Want to see photos from those protests and the array of clever signs that resistance to Trump is producing?   Look here, here, and here.  And read about the origins of the holiday here and here.

The War on Higher Education
A couple of weeks ago we reported in the Indy on a resolution of the UMass Faculty Senate  to form a mutual defense compact among the 60 higher education institutions (and that includes UMass) that have been targeted by the Trump administration for investigation for antisemitism, which has been the primary accusation behind Trump’s threats to withhold federal funds.

That resolution received a non-committal response from the UMass administration which is typical of what has been happening around the country until recently, with university leadership attempting to keep their heads down in order to avoid notice and retribution and with a handful of prominent universities, most notably Columbia, capitulating to Trump’s demands. There have been a scant number of exceptions, most notably the presidents of Princeton and Weslyan who have spoken up forcefully in defense of academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and the rule of law (since Trump’s impounding of federal research dollars is unconstitutional and has been subject to injunctions from several federal courts).

Several pundits have observed that staying silent in the face of this tyranny is a losing strategy which will ensure the eradication of academic freedom and institutional autonomy. This is evident in the escalating demands on Columbia following their capitulation to Trump and in Trump’s recent threats to revoke Harvard’s tax exempt status if it didn’t comply with demands to cede control of admissions and curriculum to the Feds. Harvard, had little choice but to fight back and is challenging Trump’s threats in court.  The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that 80 Harvard faculty members have pledged 10% of their salary to support the ongoing legal challenges.

Colleges and universities are slowly starting to join the resistance and that resistance is starting to have an impact. More than 400 higher education leaders have signed a statement from the American Association of Colleges & Universities against government overreach and calling for constructive engagement.

Rick Seltzer of the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that last week, 10 private colleges have formed a collective to stand against the Trump administration, its attempts to cut research funding, and its efforts to erode academic independence, according to The Wall Street Journal. Members are Ivy League colleges and other top research universities, mostly in states controlled by Democrats.

And faculty-governance groups at Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota voted last week to support a mutual-defense compact to respond to attacks from the government, Faculty groups at more than half of the Big Ten’s 18 members now back the idea,. It would still need support from boards and administrators, but Michigan State University’s president has told its student newspaper he expects leaders to consider it.

Resistance Results in the Restoration of Student Visas
Resistance is not futile. One indication is that last week, the Feds announced that they will restore the student visas of over 1000 international students whose visas had been revoked in recent weeks including 13 students at UMass Amherst.

Still No Word on the UMass Appeal to the 60 Campuses Targeted by Trump
Last I heard, only a few of the other 59 campuses were considering  joining a mutual defense pact. But that was two weeks ago and momentum is clearly growing within the higher education community.  So stay tuned.

Thanks for reading the Indy,

Art

Art Keene
Managing Editor