If you’ve ever used a government website to look up crime statistics, public health data, or local housing trends for a class project, you probably didn’t think twice about whether that information would always be there. But in recent months, conversations among librarians, technologists, and policy researchers (including some within the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard) are raising an important concern: what happens when public data quietly disappears? These question stem from the ongoing changes in the way public data is handled, like who has the right to erase or correct public datasets?
In the early months of 2025, over 8,000 federal web pages and approximately 3,000 datasets vanished from government websites. These removals, executed under executive orders from the current administration, targeted information on climate change, public health, diversity, equity, inclusion, and more. For many, this wave of deletions might have gone unnoticed. But for those of us in higher education this should set off alarms.
These weren’t obscure or outdated files. Among the removed resources were climate resilience maps, CDC vaccination data, environmental justice reports, Title IX enforcement tools, and federal dashboards on homelessness and poverty. In short, these were the very kinds of materials our students and faculty rely on to conduct research, inform policy debates, and shape their understanding of the world. The erasure of data on such a scale is not simply a bureaucratic decision—it is a deeply political act. By selectively removing entire categories of public knowledge, the current administration isn’t just changing policy; it’s reshaping the narrative. When climate data disappears from public view, it becomes harder for journalists to report, harder for activists to mobilize, and harder for students to ask critical questions.
To bring this problem, here at CSUSB, we emphasize civic engagement, research-based learning, and social responsibility. Our students are taught to examine evidence, challenge assumptions, and propose data-informed solutions to real-world problems. But what happens when the data itself is pulled from under them? Therefore, this isn’t just a national problem—it hits close to home. The Inland Empire already struggles with environmental burdens, public health disparities, and underinvestment in education and infrastructure. Federal datasets have historically been a window into these issues: showing us where asthma rates are highest, how wildfire risk maps are changing, or where broadband access is lagging. When those datasets are scrubbed from government websites, we lose not only information—we lose tools for accountability and progress. It becomes harder for students at CSUSB to investigate local stories, for faculty to guide meaningful research, and for community organizations to apply for grants or support evidence-backed policy initiatives.
In moments like this, universities must do more than simply observe – we must respond. CSUSB, as a public institution, has a duty to safeguard access to knowledge and push back against the quiet normalization of information suppression. We can start by working with our own librarians, who are already on the front lines of digital preservation—to ensure key resources remain accessible, even as official channels disappear. We should also be incorporating digital literacy and data ethics into more classrooms, helping students critically assess what’s missing, not just what’s present. And we should support faculty research that tracks and documents the implications of these data losses.
This is not alarmism. It is a sober recognition that public knowledge is not permanent unless we make it so. In many ways, we’ve come to take open data for granted: the idea that government statistics will always be there, updated and available for download. But 2025 has shown us how quickly that access can be rolled back. If we don’t pay attention, the record of our moment (especially the inconvenient part) will quietly vanish. That’s not just a loss for researchers. It’s a loss for democracy.
As students, faculty, and community members at CSUSB, we must remain vigilant. Not just in using data, but in defending its presence. Because when public knowledge becomes politically inconvenient, it won’t just disappear on its own. It will be erased quietly, efficiently, and without notice.