We the undersigned UNT faculty write to profess our profound shock, dismay, and embarrassment that the university we are so proud to serve would stoop to invite Donald Trump Jr. to speak in North Texas under UNT’s auspices. This invitation evinces a stunning disrespect for women, people of color, LGBTQ members of our community, and others, and it cannot stand.

We call on the UNT Board of Regents to rescind UNT’s invitation to Mr. Trump and to suspend the Kuehne Speaker Series until UNT administrators can devise a shared-governance process that will bring more of UNT's stakeholders--including UNT administrators, faculty, staff, and students--together to select speakers. This would allow our university's premier speaker series to meet the stated goal that it is not currently meeting: to bring to North Texas men and women who have expertise to share on topics of national and global relevance.



Mr. Trump has not had life experiences that rise to this level; he was born wealthy and hired by his father to work for a family business. He certainly has not expressed ideas that rise to this level, except as negative examples of bigotry and anti-intellectualism. His only nationally relevant actions have served to embolden the “alt-right” on our campus and beyond via social media, and his misbegotten foray into global affairs is currently under investigation by a special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice. That anyone associated with our university would choose to associate with Mr. Trump shows distressingly poor judgment.



We understand that Ernie Kuehne and Brint Ryan are free to spend their money as they wish and sincerely appreciate that they would fund this series. We want it to become an institution of which our entire university can be proud. We simply believe that UNT's premier speaker series deserves a deliberative process that brings speakers to our community who share UNT's core values. These values include Access, Accountability, Collaboration, Diversity, Engagement, Excellence, Service, and Sustainability. Having followed his progress or lack thereof, we must award Mr. Trump an Incomplete or failing grade in each of these subjects.

We therefore call on all UNT entities that have supported the Kuehne Speaker Series in the past to suspend that support for 2017-18.



In response to our concerns a UNT spokesperson claims, “As a public university that supports the expression of differing points of view as part of the learning process, the University of North Texas welcomes speakers who represent all viewpoints, including conservative, liberal and progressive political ideology as well as all positions in between.” In fact, in its history the Kuehne Series has featured no such range of opinions, yet we have not seen fit to express our concerns until now. We raise our voices today because we consider Mr. Trump’s words and actions far beyond the bounds of reasonable, respectful discourse upon which the work of our learning community depends. We embrace the free exchange of ideas and seek them out from all directions, but we cannot accept the outrageous decision-making that would result in inviting (much less paying!) anyone who offers so little of intellectual, cultural, or moral value to our community.



We ask the people of North Texas to understand that this invitation does not represent our university community or our shared values. To the UNT administration we pledge our own time and energies to help UNT find a solution to the problems of the Kuehne Speaker Series. Most important, to current and prospective students, we say: we value and respect you, and in this case we depend on you. Please help us force UNT to live up to its core values now and in the future.



With UNT pride,

Todd Moye, Department of History

Nancy L. Stockdale, Department of History

Idean Salehyan, Department of Political Science

Masood Raja, English

Jennifer Jensen Wallach, History

Irene J. Klaver, Department of Philosophy and Religion

Annette Lawrence, Studio Art

Brian C. O'Connor

Robert Jessup CVAD

Marilyn Morris, Department of History

Robert Frodeman, Philosophy

David Mason, Political Science

Amie Adelman, Studio Art

Nada Shabout, CVAD, Art History

Harry M. Benshoff, Media Arts

Deborah Needleman Armintor, Department of English

C. Melinda Levin

J. Michael Greig, Political Science

Stephen Mandiberg, Media Arts

Dr. Jacqueline Vickery, Media Arts

Steven Friedson, Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology

Kim De Wolff Philosophy & Religion

Terra Schwerin Rowe, Philosophy and Religion

Megan Morrissey, Communication Studies

Tyson Lewis Art Education and Art History

Constance Hilliard, Department of History

Jacqueline Vanhoutte

Mickey Abel, Art History

Lisa N. Owen, Department of Art Education and Art History

Beverly Ann Davenport

Myra Walker, College of Visual Arts and Design

Cynthia Mohr, Design

Clark A. Pomerleau, History

Li-Fen Anny Chang, College of Visual Arts and Design

Gabriel Duran, Media Arts

Jennifer Lane, Division of Vocal Studies

Alicia Re Cruz, ANTH/WGST

Roberto R. Calderon

Andrew Nelson, Anthropology

Mariela Nuñez-Janes, Anthropology

Kimberly Cole Luevano, Division of Instrumental Studies

Terri Sundberg Instrumental Studies

Rosana Eckert

Jesse E. Eschbach, Keyboard Studies

James Ryon - College of Music

Jaime E. Jimenez, Biological Sciences

Dr. Corey Marks, English

Dennis W. Fisher, College of Music

Dr. Pamela Mia Paul

Professor Christoph Hammer, College of Music

Vivek Virani, Music History, Theory & Ethnomusicology

Tony Baker, College of Music

Frank Heidlberger, College of Music

Donald C. Little, College of Music

Margaret Notley, College of Music/History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology

Mary Karen Clardy, College of Music

David Itkin, College of Music.

Jay Allison, Department of Communication Studies

Priscilla Solis Ybarra, Department of English

Gustavo Romero, Music/Piano Area

Elizabeth Oldmixon, Political Science

Stephen Dubberly, College of Music

Karen Y. Kimball, COMM Studies

Wendy Middlemiss. Educational Psychology

John Scott, Instumental Studies

Johnnie Stark, CVAD Department of Design

Anna Marsden, Communication Studies

Donna T. Emmanuel Music Education

Patrick Coil

Kathleen Reynolds, College of Music

John Tait, English Department

Catherine Ragland

Kris Chesky, Music

Vladimir VIardo, College of Music

Jordan Frith, Technical Communication

Jehanne Dubrow, Department of English

Haj Ross, Linguistics

Patricia Cukor-Avila, Linguistics

Ricardo Rozzi, Department of Philosophy & Religion

Eugene Migliaro Corporon

Dr. Elizabeth McGee Powell, ASLP Department

Timothy Montler, Technical Communication

Jeffrey Rasch

Michael R. Gibson

*Joseph Klein, Composition Studies

*Emile Sahliyeh, International Studies

*James Swan, Departmentt of Rehabilitation and Health Services

*Anjelita Cadena , Department of FIREL

*Mary Bailey Estes, Department. of Educational Psychology

*Amarie Carnett, Department of Educational Psychology

*Julie McKendrick, CVAD

*Mary Lynn Babcock, Department of Dance and Theatre

*Jaime Javier Rodríguez, Department of English

*Sean Miller, CVAD

*Antonella Longo, Department of Biological Sciences

*Cornelia L. Izen, Department of Educational Psychology

*Suzanne Enck, Communication Studies & WGST

*Abbas Tashakkori, Department of Educational Psychology

*Linda L. Marshall, Department of Psychology

*Adriel Boals, Department of Psychology

*Samantha Langsdale, Department of Philosophy & Religion

*Alexis Palmer, Linguistics

*Ed Soph, College of Music, Jazz Studies (retired)

Natalie Mannix, College of Music

*Faculty that have added their names to the open letter after the original time of publication (9.22.17 11 a.m.)

Header image photographed by Robert Warren

Header image layout designed by Christopher Rodgers