On April 18, 2025, Chancellor Javier Reyes sent the following message to the university faculty and librarians regarding his call for a special meeting of the General Faculty to be held on Friday, April 25, to consider endorsing and affirming a statement of shared values across higher education.
 

Dear faculty colleagues,

Pursuant to my role as president of the faculty senate, and in consultation with the secretary of the faculty senate, I am calling for a meeting of the General Faculty to be held on Friday, April 25, 2025, at 3pm in ILC N151.

The purpose of this meeting is to consider the endorsement of “A Statement in Support of the Core Mission and Shared Values of Higher Education in the United States of America.”  

When so many within our community, especially the most vulnerable among us, feel the weight of this moment, I believe that if we come together as one, in support of all students, all staff, and all faculty, we can meet the challenge of unprecedented times.

This statement affirms the values that unite us across institutions and disciplines: the belief in open inquiry, academic freedom, and free expression, and the power we draw from the rich diversity of our students, faculty, and staff.

The events of the past several months, with threats to defund research, the widespread revocation of student visas, attacks on DEI, and partisan division roiling our society call for us to recommit to our foundational values. The statement under consideration is not political—truth has no politics. Evidence is not partisan. Knowledge is not bound by party.

Rather, this is a statement of shared purpose and a recognition of the essential public value of higher education: its power to improve the human condition, inspire creativity, and expand the frontiers of discovery. It also affirms the values that guide our work—the freedoms to explore, to speak, to gather, to teach, and to challenge each other and the systems around us in pursuit of knowledge.

In convening this faculty assembly, we have an opportunity to make a clear statement in support of our shared commitment to living these values and delivering on them without discrimination—always acting to expand opportunity, never to restrict it. We will be proclaiming that the tools of scholarship must be used equitably and inclusively.

I ask that the esteemed faculty of the University of Massachusetts Amherst take this opportunity to stand together in resolute support of our mission – not only as members of the faculty of our university, but as educators of and for a greater, global good.

With gratitude and solidarity,

Javier Reyes
Chancellor