Make your voice heard to stop the Education Department's weaponization of federal funds and attack on the freedom to teach, learn, and research

This spring, the Department of Education and the Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization (AIM) Committee held negotiated rulemaking meetings and reached consensus on proposed regulatory changes that will have negative impacts on the higher education sector, from stripping away autonomy and the expertise of faculty, limiting fair opportunity for students to thrive, and throttling the freedom to teach, learn, and research.

Any member of the public and/or organization can submit public comment to demonstrate to the Department the harmful impacts these proposed changes would have (disliking something is not sufficient, comment must demonstrate actual impact). The Department must respond to all “significant” comments and must explain their decision if they decide not to make changes in a way that is not “arbitrary and capricious.” Public comment also lays the groundwork for legal action and helps Congress and others understand why the proposed regulations are harmful to our nation.

Comments about the proposed rules can be submitted until XXX at 11:59pm using this link – ADD LINK

While quantity of public comment is important, more essential is that each submission is personalized so that it will require a review and response from the Department. 100 of the same comment, for example, count as one comment. You should include information about the impact of specific provisions to you as a stakeholder, whether you are a student, faculty or staff member, an administrator or college president.

To help with this, the Alliance has created a template (NOTE BEFORE PUBLISHING: this is a Google doc. It needs to be updated to include the docket number and other technical info) to guide the development of your comment. The Alliance's own comment is available here. (SAME NOTE AS ABOVE, BUT SOME ADDITIONAL TWEAKS IN BODY OF COMMENT ARE NECESSARY). For each point you raise, you should cite the relevant provision from the proposed rule and provide specific examples to illustrate why it may be harmful to academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and student success.

Please know that any personal information in the comment letter could be made public. When you submit, you can choose if you want to include your name/organization or to do so anonymously.