There is measurably more good than bad in the world because of Columbia and because of higher education. This is not a difficult proposition to defend. The founders and preservers of our country’s democracy and its many institutions have learned and led on our campus. Life-changing and improving discoveries like the laser, nuclear magnetic resonance, chromosomal genetics, and those spurred by the Manhattan Project started in our labs; lawyers who have gone on to defend critical freedoms, such as the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, cultivated their skills of debate in our classrooms; spiritual and civil rights leaders developed their visions at our affiliated seminaries; artists and creatives from Zora Neale Hurston to Vampire Weekend found their voices on our campus. The list goes on in terms of how the hard work and creativity of our students, faculty, and alumni have improved the world, and continue to do so today.

Now, Columbia, alongside all of higher education, is under attack. The most ferocious assaults are coming from President Donald Trump’s administration, which has set its sights on dismantling higher education as a pathway toward gutting crucial tenets of democracy, including academic and intellectual freedom. Pulling $400 million in federal funding from Columbia and sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement to our campus are just opening moves.

It is bitterly ironic that the Trump administration’s attack has drawn sympathy and justification from voices on our campus. Small, yet vocal factions within our community, and others from outside, have made it their goal to disrupt and dismantle our University. Some tell a story about Columbia as a slavishly pro-Zionist entity that denies the humanity of Palestinians, charging the University with having blood on its hands, while others depict Columbia as a nefarious antisemitic entity that denies the humanity of the Jewish people, parading the school’s purported antisemitism before an audience of hungry politicians and click-motivated media outlets.

Indisputably, both sides would argue their perspectives from evidence; the harms in our world abound. But right now, the moment requires something different. It is time to regain our trust in one another as a community and to realize that sit-ins, doxxing, and online screeds all serve one purpose, and it is none of ours. It is time to recognize that the defense of Columbia, the American system of higher education, and democracy—namely, the freedoms of speech and assembly and the division of federal powers—itself is in the shared interest of our entire community, regardless of our differing views on the Middle East. The narrative of Columbia and higher education on fire only serves the interests of those seeking the wholesale dismantlement of the democratic institutions of higher education, research, and scholarship.

The Trump administration rose to power on division. It is fueled by pitting people against one another. When campus groups fight, focused only on damaging one another, the administration’s democracy-destroying squad will meet little resistance. Those forces will paint a caricature of higher education, which will substitute the real value that higher education provides. And in the name of that false narrative, the government will justify its withdrawal of funding for life-saving research and so much more of the real value that higher education provides. It will destroy the essential educational opportunities that have enabled people from any background or means to learn about and contribute to the world. And it will steadily and surely diminish the free inquiry and debate that, at Columbia and other institutions of higher learning, have led to path-breaking insights and discoveries and have helped these institutions change and better themselves.

To rebuild trust in one another, we must begin by redoubling our commitment to the value of higher education and its fundamental role in not just preserving but also enriching democracy. Institutions like Columbia will need to come together to defend their very existence and remind the world of their tremendous value. I encourage the leadership of Columbia to continue to work in coalition with University and college presidents across the country to make the affirmative case for higher education and to resist the antidemocratic forces that propagate a false and vicious narrative about it.

As a member of the faculty, I support Columbia in this existential crisis, and I welcome all faculty, students, alumni, and community members, no matter their perspectives on Israel or Palestine or indeed any of the politicized fights of today, to engage in acts of support and to defend our institutions of democracy. For me, a tenured faculty member with the security of citizenship and a measure of institutional access, this has meant the following. Firstly, it involves trusting that our institution’s leadership are, to the best of their abilities, acting in the interests of the tens of thousands of faculty, students, and staff in our University, as well as the hundreds of thousands of proud alumni and community members. Secondly, it looks like communicating concerns to the Columbia administration with grace and patience while understanding that there are many opposing pressures in the balance and that actions or words that benefit one group may harm several others, inadvertently or otherwise. Finally, it has meant abstaining from promulgating unsubstantiated theories or defending those who would use Columbia as a pawn in their political fight while watching it burn. It is deeply concerning that someone leaked a transcript of a meeting of faculty leaders with former interim University President Katrina Armstrong. Actions such as that cannibalize Columbia. We cannot forget that the main instigator of this fight is the Trump administration, and that should be the focus of our collective energy.

For others, support may look quite different. We may disagree on any number of issues and should continue to ask hard questions about how Columbia and higher education can achieve better things for more people. But right now, we must engage in a politics of solidarity to stop all of those who seek to erode our democracy and the institutions that protect it. We must recognize that regardless of our divisions, we hold in common a commitment to a future where discovery, scholarship, and inquiry can thrive. The future of our democracy depends on it.