Dear friend,

Did you know U.S. universities are taking billions of dollars in research funding to support nuclear weapons development? Today, our new report “Schools of Mass Destruction: American Universities in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex” exposes nearly 50 universities benefiting from the new nuclear arms race, and putting the entire world at risk.

Some of these universities are household names: University of California, Texas A&M University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through a variety of partnerships and programmes, the universities in this report are providing the scientific, technical and human capital needed to build U.S. nuclear weapons. And it’s happening largely in secret: many staff and students of these universities are unaware of their institution’s complicity in making weapons of mass destruction that can end our world as we know it. 

Because here’s the thing: Universities are supposed to teach students how to make the world better, not how to destroy it. Students, staff and alumni of these universities must demand that their schools live up to their mission statements, instead of working on the creation and maintenance of weapons designed to wipe out entire cities in a heartbeat, leaving lasting catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences.

That’s why we’re launching this report today, and calling on all these universities to follow our recommendations to end their contribution to building and maintaining one of the greatest threats to humanity. Will you help us hold them accountable?

Thank you,

Alicia Sanders-Zakre

Policy & Research Coordinator
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons