Arizona State University has a partnership with the National Security Agency through the National Centers of Academic Excellence program. ASU is currently opposing efforts in the state legislature to cut the NSA off from state support.

Documents released over the last year paint a picture of an unaccountable agency vacuuming up vast amounts of personal, private information and metadata on Americans. The NSA gathers this data without a warrant, a violation of the very clear language of the Fourth Amendment. We also know from a Reuters report that the NSA shares this data with state and local law enforcement. Most of this data has nothing to do with national security, but gets used in the prosecution of ordinary criminal cases. Further, we know the federal government encourages state and local law enforcement to cover up the origins of the illegally gathered information. This behavior thrusts a dagger into the heart of American’s most basic civil liberties and privacy rights.

While ASU’s relationship with the NSA provides a certain level of prestige and brings in valuable funding, we do not believe we should trade our civil liberties for institutional advantages.

As long as the NSA continues to operate outside of constitutional parameters and defiantly ignores basic Fourth Amendment requirements for gathering information or data belonging to people on American soil, we cannot support ASU’s involvement with the agency.

While activities in partnership with the NSA on the ASU campus likely don’t directly violate the Constitution, by supporting this organization and taking money from it, we become complicit in its illegal activities. ASU should not support or associate with an agency violating its own students’ rights.

We call on the Arizona State University administration to immediately seek an end to any relationship with the NSA as quickly as legally possible.

View our open letter to the ASU administration here.