The termination of professor Keith Jones is not just a loss of another educator — it’s a reflection of a deeper institutional failure. It represents their willingness to suppress educators who challenge the critical thinking of their students, and their ability to imagine a world outside the status quo. What’s at stake is not just a professor’s career, but the principles this university claims to sustain.
Institutions often present themselves as places of transformative learning. Yet, when an educator who’s known for engaging students and challenging them is removed, we must confront the uncomfortable reality: not all forms of knowledge are welcomed. There is a difference between education that reproduces preexisting systems and education that challenges them–too often, it’s quality that’s deemed expendable.
That’s why the words of Fred Hampton feel extremely urgent: “It’s a question of resistance to facism or non-existence within facism.” His words remind us that the power structure is never neutral. Their main objective is to eliminate those who oppose it. When institutions silence those who challenge inequality, they’re ultimately choosing conformity.
At this moment, we must recognize our positions within the system. Universities do not exist without students, and that’s what gives us power. The question now is, will we use that power? Speaking out through collective action and organizing is not an option — as students it is our responsibility. Silence in the face of injustice is complicity.
At its root, this situation reveals the truth about higher education: universities function to reproduce colonial ideologies. Rather than developing independent thinking, they’d rather shape students into “colonial” copies — individuals who are trained to fit within the system, rather than challenge it. Their goal isn’t to transform, it’s to maintain.
Educators like professor Jones hinder that pattern. He doesn’t just simply provide information; he helps students interrogate the world around them and their place within it. That kind of education transforms those who immerse themselves in it. That impact is best understood through the voices of the students themselves.
As Lara Cordeiro, a current student, reflects, Professor Jones “has this incredible talent of engaging with his students with care, while also challenging us to grow,” creating an environment that exceeds what others experience elsewhere. Another current student, Jada Knight, describes his classroom as “a place to co-construct knowledge…that empowers and connects students to ourselves and our peers,” emphasizing a pedagogy deeply rooted in community rather than hierarchy. For her, he has also been “a collaborator, a sounding board, and an advocate,” demonstrating a commitment to the development of his students.
Another current student of his, Angela Martínez, emphasizes the most important aspect of his impact: “He helped me recognize that I already had the skills and ability to succeed—I just needed someone to challenge me to trust and refine them.” This kind of transformation is not incidental, it is the result of intentional teaching.
These testimonies are not isolated praise; they are evidence. Professor Jones is a living example of the principles that universities claim to hold dear: engagement, inclusivity, and student empowerment. By removing him, you don’t just lose a professor, you undermine those values.
This is where the words of Martin Luther King Jr. command our attention: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” If we continue to ignore the significance of this moment and choose not to act, we are engaging in the erosion of the same ideals education is meant to uphold.
Ultimately, this moment has forced a choice. Will the university remain a space that encourages thought, or will it become one that disciplines it? And if so, will students accept that reality or challenge it?
The termination of Professor Jones isn’t just an administrative decision, it is a test. Of values. Of courage. Of whether our community will continue to remain silent, or speak. If history has taught us anything, it’s that change will never come from silence. It comes from those willing to resist, to organize, and refuse a future dictated by the power structure.
Our education and voices will never be theirs to control.
This is not the moment in time where we should retreat. This is the time to stand firm, speak louder, and act with urgency. The future is not something handed to us, it’s something we build and defend. And this is a fight we intend to never give up on.