by Mia Palazzo
STORRS, CT — A coalition of undergraduates, graduate employees, and faculty held a costumed protest on Monday at 11 a.m. outside Homer Babbidge Library to call for stronger protections for free speech and academic freedom at the University of Connecticut.
The event, described by organizers as a “joyful” demonstration, was intended to challenge what they view as restrictive university policies and a refusal by UConn administrators to guarantee academic freedom as a contractual right.
UConn undergraduates, graduate employees, and faculty participate in a costumed “freedom frolic” parade gathered outside Homer Babbidge Library at UConn Storrs on Dec. 1, 2025, during a protest calling for stronger protections for free speech and academic freedom. Credit: Mia Palazzo / CTNewsJunkie
Organizer Sam Sommers, an assistant professor in residence, said there has been “a lot of chilling repression by the UConn administration in the past few years around free speech,” alongside what she described as the university’s refusal to protect academic freedom and the contracts for graduate workers and for faculty members.
“To me, those two things are really connected,” Sommers said. “We’re out here having some fun because we think that things like acoustic guitars and letting people be heard are not actually that scary. We think that this is just what universities do. They allow people to be heard and seen, and they allow for joyful protest.”
Faculty and graduate employees involved in collective bargaining say academic freedom remains a central point of contention, as is outlined in Article XX, an article on academic freedom from the Graduate Employee & Postdoc Union.
UConn undergraduates, graduate employees, and faculty participate in a costumed “freedom frolic” parade gathered outside Homer Babbidge Library at UConn Storrs on Dec. 1, 2025, during a protest calling for stronger protections for free speech and academic freedom. Credit: Mia Palazzo / CTNewsJunkie
Sommers said faculty union members have been bargaining for academic freedom for months with no sign of resolution.
University spokesperson Stephanie Reitz, the school’s director of media relations, in an emailed comment explained the school’s academic freedom guidelines.
“UConn is deeply committed to academic freedom, seeing it as fundamental to our mission as a public research university. As such, its importance is enshrined in the current American Association of University Professors contract and in the University Bylaws, which provide significant detail on the full freedom to teach, research, publish, and engage in open inquiry and expression, consistent with the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.”
Chen Chen, an assistant professor of sports management in the Neag School of Education, emphasized the message the demonstration aimed to send.
“The most important thing is that we try to highlight the importance for the UConn administration to honor and protect and respect academic freedom for everybody on campus, faculty, staff and students” Chen said.
He said the most important message is that campus community members must step out of their comfort zone and stand in solidarity and support.
“I think it’s even more important for UConn to be a place of free exchange of ideas, to live up to its ideal as a higher education institution,” Chen said.
He added that faculty in the AAUP are standing in solidarity with graduate employees who “are also demanding higher level and space for academic freedom” in ongoing negotiations. He said they need job security and protection for their “conditions of employment.”
Chen said he became involved after working on the Ad Hoc Committee on International and Immigrant Workers, which formed earlier this year when some students had their visas abruptly canceled, including one of his own students. That advocacy work connected him to organizing around contract negotiations this fall.
Graduate employee Javier García, who works at the Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, said he is participating “in solidarity” as his union pushes for academic freedom guarantees. Graduate employees “are currently introducing a lot of academic freedom articles in our bargaining for a contract,” he said.
“If it’s just like a word of mouth agreement, that doesn’t mean anything.” García said.
García said that graduate workers have previously faced issues on campus, including restrictions on amplified sound or bringing guitars to large events.
Ariel Lambe, an associate professor and associate department head in the history department at UConn Waterbury, said the idea for Monday’s “freedom frolic” formed after a faculty-staff-student event in the Student Union where roughly 200 participants held signs but were told by administrators to leave.
“Although we were standing peacefully with signs and talking quietly amongst ourselves, admin decided that we couldn’t be there and shouldn’t be there and kicked us out,” Lambe said. “That really struck a number of us as disproportionate, as ridiculous, frankly, and as unconscionable.”
Reitz said that at the event in question the university had offered the group “multiple indoor locations where it could have used amplified sound, but declined the options.”
Lambe said Monday’s protest was intended to “counter their fear and repression with joy and information teaching.”
She said she has also participated in joint efforts at the Waterbury campus to protest budget cuts and advocate for state support.
“There’s definitely engagement on multiple campuses for a stronger, better UConn,” she said.
Lambe said universities nationwide are facing federal threats to academic freedom and funding.
“We really need to push our UConn administration to stand up to those attacks,” she said. “If we want to make sure that UConn is the great university of the state of Connecticut … we really need to take a stand.”
Sommers said the university has been made aware of their protest and that their efforts will not stop until they see results.