To President Daniels and the JHU administration:

We, the undersigned alumni, call on the administration to immediately meet the demands of the students in good faith. We disavow any misinformation or violence perpetrated by the JHU administration against the students’ anti-genocide encampment on the Beach.

The demands of students in the encampment are clear: 

1. Divest 

2. Disclose 

3. Boycott

4. Demilitarize 

5. Denounce 

These demands are aligned with the core missions of public health that JHU claims to lead. It is unconscionable for JHU to fund weapons and information systems that contribute to killing medical workers, humanitarian workers, and innocent people, including children and people with disabilities. These same investments create conditions of starvation and outbreaks of infectious diseases. It is shameful, hypocritical and wrong for JHU to claim to be a source of knowledge production and academic freedom when it lacks transparency in its investments and chooses to co-opt or silence its students’ demands rather than disclose and divest student money from war. 

The administration’s response has been in bad faith. The call for open dialogue after the encampment is closed in the name of safety and health is inherently disingenuous in its failure to address the clear demands of the students. The university administration can choose to, at a minimum, immediately disclose investments and divest from weapons manufacturing companies and governments engaged in war as a gesture of good faith towards engaging in the dialogue the administration claims to value.

In solidarity with the brave students who are putting their bodies and livelihoods on the line to bring attention and put pressure on JHU’s administration to align with its values, we vow to withdraw support from JHU - including all donations and participation in alumni events - until the administration respects students and the values of academic freedom and public health are actualized in the investments and leadership decision-making of the University. 

We call on you to immediately meet the demands of the students in the encampment. JHU has the opportunity to be a leader in acting on the values it claims to uphold - anything short threatens any credibility of the university as a leader in public health and medicine.