Majority of Film Schools' Presidents Sign Anti-Trump Letter

But highest ranked USC, NYU, AFI still don't sign AACU letter

Two days ago I posted that a majority of Top 25 film schools were at institutions whose presidents had not signed onto the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) “Call for Constructive Engagement” letter this week. The good news is that as of April 25, that has shifted to a majority of the Top 25 film schools who are at universities or colleges that have signed onto the academic pushback on the Trump administration.

Unfortunately, the top three film schools, USC, NYU and AFI, still haven’t signed, as well as other high-ranking films schools like UNC School of the Arts, UTAustin, DePaul and Columbia College (both in Chicago), SCAD, Florida State, Ringling, Syracuse and Art Center College of Design. Why these holdouts? Some are in the South, but others are in deep blue California and New York. Some are part of big universities (where the President’s kid is a student), but others, like AFI, Art Center, SCAD and Ringling are more or less standalone film and art schools.

In honor of the Georgetown law students’ spreadsheet of capitulating law firms, following is the quick spreadsheet (as of today) of the Top 25 films schools (as ranked by The Hollywood Reporter - as good a list as any):

James Fallows writes a great Substack deep dive into why this AACU letter is a “Primal scream from Academia.” To borrow from my own Substack from two days ago…

As I’ve written before on my Substack, Trump is surely coming for Hollywood, just as he’s come for academia, law firms, media companies, big tech, immigrants and his own government employees. As I argued, this Trumpian moment is eerily reminiscent of the McCarthy era which similarly tried to impose a false purity test in the service of demagoguery and authoritarian impulse. Academia and Hollywood didn’t show a lot of strength then, and it’s too early to see what will happen now.

But at least this minor show of unity by academia in the form of this letter is a clarion call that academia might not roll over so easily. This is a lesson to Hollywood: Hang together and stand up for our rights or we will surely hang separately. And where does Hollywood come from? Largely from film schools. If film students at most of the prestigious institutions in America are learning to cave to authoritarians, what is the lesson for our film students? Don’t stand up to censorship. Don’t stand up for original ideas. Don’t stand up for freedom of expression. Don’t stand up to bullies.

For those of you in film school – or perhaps more importantly, alumni of film schools – now is the time to write to your deans. And film school deans? Now is the time to call your school presidents. This is the time and the moment to take a stand against the new McCarthyism. I realize not every film school carries that much weight within their respective universities. But for some - like at USC and NYU - these are the cash-cow colleges and departments that bring in prestige, fame and money. Those deans definitely carry some weight. Whether they choose to use it or not in this moment, we’ll see.

As a filmmaker with one foot in academia who’s guest lectured at over 70 film schools and universities, I can tell you that every school has a different culture and connection to their broader institutions. And most films schools strenuously avoid politics of any stripe. But in this climate they can’t. It’s not just a value proposition, it’s very often an existential question: Many of these schools rely on international students paying full tuition to support their budgets. How many of those students will willingly or not return in the fall? And for any incoming students still weighing their options before committing to a film school, this might be one datapoint that could steer them one way or another. If film schools don’t help their institutions take a stand, they’re destined to stumble.

Note: The list of those college presidents who’ve signed the AACU list is changing by the hour. Please check the list to see what’s changed since I posted this.