Academia serves society by cultivating critical thinking and advancing knowledge, but research and teaching freedom face increasing pressures. For example, some early-career colleagues I have spoken to at conferences in the U.S. confess that the need for high student evaluations to advance their careers forces them to avoid teaching topics such as climate-related aspects in their SCM classes because it would lead to poor evaluations from conservative students. Although it is not new that academic inquiry is constrained by authoritarian regimes, signs of similar challenges are now appearing in the United States. This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) retracted manuscripts authored by its researchers from scientific journals for review in order to comply with President Trump’s executive order. The order mandates the removal of discussions of topics such as gender diversity. A colleague from a public university in the U.S. told me that her school is now imposing travel restrictions on countries like China. All of this sounds very alarming! Let us not forget that academic freedom cannot be taken for granted.