“Dear Professor Watchlist,

“We, the undersigned faculty at the Universities and other institutions of higher learning listed below, write to request that you place all of our names on Professor Watchlist.

“We support the faculty at University of Notre Dame and many of our colleagues listed on your site. These philosophers, scientists, historians, theologians, ethicists, feminists and many others have spent their careers in the pursuit of truth and critical thought. These individuals represent an educational system that relies on academic freedom, which is necessary to support the personal freedoms that lie at the core of our national ideals.

“We will not tolerate our colleagues being subject to policing of their work, their thoughts and their teaching. We will not repeat the passivity of the past, when intellectuals were blacklisted for disagreeing with a particular agenda. When you challenge them, you challenge us. Even when we may disagree with each other, we support and demand our right to continue to publish and discuss our work, to call attention to injustice and false information, to challenge our students to think critically, to commit ourselves to the pursuit of truth and independent thought that defines an educated and free society.

“Along with our colleagues at University of Notre Dame, please add our names, the undersigned faculty, to the Professor Watchlist. We wish to be counted among those you are watching.”