A coalition of alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff and community members supporting the University of Minnesota
Gopher the Future is a nonpartisan and multi-generational coalition of alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff and community members protecting the free and equitable pursuit of knowledge at The University of Minnesota.
Our work is rooted in deep respect for UMN’s legacy of excellence and innovation.
Our Vision
Public education and universities provide the foundation for a secular democracy and, as such, require full academic freedom to seek truth and understanding. Academic freedom is built on freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and the inherent freedom of thought guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, without government censorship or retaliation.
Our Mission
We will fight to protect the mission of the University of Minnesota–to search for truth and educate a diverse community–and stand with students, faculty, partners and allies by speaking up, building relationships, and organizing on and off campus.
Informed by this mission, Gopher the Future is organizing to:
Build power and use our voices to support the University of Minnesota as an independent public university;
Resist any restrictions on the academic freedoms of students, faculty or staff in the University of Minnesota system;
Support the rights of all students, to participate equitably in all University opportunities, including providing support to those students historically deprived of access;
Support faculty and staff in their efforts to ensure qualitative and diverse research, and education; and
Work with other such organizations across universities to build support for academic freedom, recognizing our strength as supporters and advocates for democracy.
Our History
In the spring of 2025, the Trump administration sued the University of Minnesota to limit freedom of speech on campus, detained graduate student Doğukan Günaydn with no warrant, and created fear among members of the university community that their academic freedoms, educations, scholarships, and even livelihoods were at risk.
The federal government also terminated $23.4 million in research grants, causing graduate students to lose their jobs, and graduate and undergraduates to lose research opportunities.
Hands Off Our University began as a coalition of alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, and the larger community in August of 2025 under the leadership of Indivisible Twin Cities’ Education Action Team to show our support for our 175-year-old land grant university. As one of the state’s major employers across ten campuses, but, more importantly, a pillar of democracy, our University needed our help. Our focus was on academic speech, freedom of speech and research funding.
Yet, the University Administration in 2025 both acted in anticipation of, and negotiated with, the Trump administration to restrict access and educational pursuits. Three particularly concerning actions were:
An institutional speech policy approved by the Board of Regents at the request of President Rebecca Cunningham in March 2025, that ignored a faculty task force’s recommendations and put control over college, departmental and student speech on institutional pages solely in the hands of the president and provost. The policy provides few guidelines and has had a chilling effect on publication of research and commentary on current events.
On October 3, 2025, the University signed an agreement with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights promising to sever all outside contracts with any organization that helps support and provide equal access to students who have historically been denied, as a group, equal participation in educational programs.
During the winter of 2025-26, the University of Minnesota administration provided no clear policy on how it would protect students from Operation Metro Surge (the 3,000-agent occupation of the Twin Cities targeting immigrant communities) in a clear attempt to not offend the Trump administration.
As we look forward, we have assumed a new name, Gopher the Future, to champion the values that have made the University of Minnesota great and to join with Universities from across the country to defend democracy and our constitutional right to freedom of speech, on which all other rights depend.
Gopher the Future
A coalition of alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff and community members supporting the University of Minnesota.
