Ann M. Rhodes is a Waterloo native who worked at the University of Iowa for 47 years.

Education at all levels, but particularly higher education, is under assault. As a society, we appear to have abandoned the notion articulated by our Founding Fathers that an educated citizenry is critical to democracy.

As the Chair of the Executive Committee of the University of Iowa chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), I would like to speak to the values of higher education and its critical importance. Here are our core values, upon which our advocacy work is based.

We stand for integrity. As defined by the International Center for Academic Integrity, that means a commitment to honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage. Integrity includes having the courage to teach unpopular views or minority opinions. It means having the courage to defend students and faculty who hold controversial views.

We stand for human rights. Every person is worthy of respect and should be treated fairly.

We stand for opportunity. Colleges and universities should lead to better jobs, and lives, for low-wage workers. Education is the only real way to avoid a life of poverty. The greatest era of prosperity in the U.S. followed the GI Bill, which allowed veterans to get a college education that opened doors to lucrative careers.

We stand for quality. Earning tenure at a university requires a demonstrated record of teaching excellence, the creation of new scientific, artistic, or other knowledge, and a history of service to the department, university, profession, and community.

We stand for quality teaching. Faculty members are experts in their fields of study and devote enormous amounts of time and effort to class preparation, evaluating student work, writing reference letters, and counseling students.

We stand for science. The greatest strides in improving human and public health have been at the core of university research. Scientific endeavors have allowed us to explore space, treat disease, encourage entrepreneurship, and address a vast number of problems.

We stand for diversity in all its forms. Not just ethnicity and gender, but first-generation college students, students with disabilities, veterans, neurodivergent students, students who are needy, parents of young children, students from high schools with graduating classes of 25, students from urban and rural areas, and students educated abroad.

We stand for the inherent value of education. Higher education offers advantages including improved job opportunities, higher earning potential, better communication skills, development of critical thinking skills, and increased productivity. A Pew Research study in 2016 found that college graduates were happier with their lives.

We stand for the future. The scientists, teachers, nurses, physicians, artists, historians, and writers who will serve the next generation are being educated today. A diminution in the quality of their experiences will affect the health and well-being of people into the next century.

And finally, because everything valuable has quantifiable economic consequences (that’s a joke), we stand for quality employment opportunities. Four million higher education workers form the backbone of communities in every state in the country.

It’s time to speak up for the rights of faculty, students, staff, and future recipients of services provided by those being educated today. Specifically, we need to object to content restrictions, attempts to re-write and ignore history, cuts in funding and support for higher education, and targeted efforts to punish individuals and schools.

Everyone has a role to play in fighting back. Contact elected officials, attend town halls, write articles in support of higher education, demonstrate (politely, of course). Urge your professional associations and colleagues to stand up for education.

As advocates for social justice have learned over many generations, you can’t just expect the truth or “the right thing” to prevail. We have to fight for it.

As part of the AAUP Day of Action, the “Soap Box Speak Out on Education” event is scheduled for Thursday, April 17, beginning at noon, on the Pentacrest at the University of Iowa.

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The old State capital building, part of the University of Iowa (photo by Eduardo Medrano, Shutterstock).