What Happens When America's Campus Ceasefire Expires?

Back to school resources for good citizens from The Next Move.

Aug 18, 2025

When campuses break for the summer, the conflicts facing students, faculty, and administrators don’t go away. They’re simply put on pause. A ceasefire with a firm expiration date.

The recess bell rang last spring just a few months into Donald Trump’s second term. ICE was carrying out politicized arrests of international students for protected speech and withdrawing federal funding for certain universities—all nominally in response to protests over the war in Gaza that paralyzed campuses in 2024.

Add to this mix a powerful skepticism about the democratic system—and an openness to authoritarianism—and you have a toxic stew.

At Renew Democracy Initiative and The Next Move, we’re offering an alternative to all of the noise about the campus crisis: A perspective on freedom and democracy from people who’ve experienced the opposite. A spotlight on issues that evade primetime media coverage. And a firm commitment to freedom of speech and an open exchange of ideas, even—and especially—when we disagree.

To lead off this school year, we’re publishing a series of pieces that students, professors, administrators, and parents should all pay attention to:

Sarah McLaughlin, a leading free speech scholar at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) offers a look at authoritarian pressure campaigns on campus, from the federal government and from foreign regimes boasting lucrative partnerships with the Ivory Tower. You might want to rethink that semester abroad in Qatar after reading Sarah’s piece!
Next, RDI Chairman Garry Kasparov and CEO Uriel Epshtein break down why they’ve filed affidavits in support of a lawsuit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio over student deportations—even though they firmly reject what the plaintiffs have to say. Whether you agree or disagree with Garry and Uriel, their consistency on free speech sets a powerful example.
Rounding things out, Caitlin Forrest, the director of RDI’s Frontlines of Freedom program lays out how connecting US students with dissidents from the world’s most oppressive countries can change the conversation on American democracy.

It’s one of those cliches that’s repeated so often because it’s true: What happens at our universities matters because we’re talking about the next generation of leaders. That’s why The Next Move is offering the tools to respond when America’s campus ceasefire expires.

If you enjoy our content, please consider adding a Next Move paid subscription to your back to school shopping list. RDI is offering a discount: $49/year (30% off the regular price) for an annual subscription, plus a chance to chat with Garry Kasparov on a paid subscriber-exclusive Zoom call.

P.S. If you’re following the situation with the Trump-Putin-Zelenskyy-Alaska-Russia-Ukraine hexagon, don’t worry! We’ll be keeping up the commentary and analysis on that front alongside our Back to School programming.