HELU's Wall-to-Wall and Coast-to-Coast Report – January 2025

 

January 2025 HELU Chair’s Message This winter and spring, HELU activists are leading workshops in six states to develop platforms, advance coalitions, and share concrete, tested strategies for winning political change. I hope your union will join these opportunities so we can connect with and fortify each other. At a moment when we could go quiet and dark, we must choose to build up and out.... Read more.   Read more from Mia McIver Solidarity Asks Sign Petition to Save The Bridge Peer Counseling Center at Stanford Support LA Educators Displaced by Fires PSU-AAUP Strike Fund Announced Write a letter in support of Tufts Full-Time Lecturers Union From the HELU Blog: Why should healthcare unions join HELU? Profiteers have taken over our hospitals and put patients’ lives on the line. They are forcing the closure of hospitals that do not make a profit. Insurance companies tell us how and when to treat our patients. The corporatization of both academia and healthcare are ruining the quality of education and health respectively for many of our students and patients. Just as faculty and staff say, “Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions,” healthcare workers say, “Our working conditions are our patients living or dying conditions.”... Read more. United Steelworkers Local 1088 is Newest HELU Member HELU keeps growing thanks to locals like 1088 who agree with our theory of change and also carry it on their workplaces to build a higher education system that works for all. Our strength and coalitional capacity increases thanks to the engagement of members within their locals carrying our strategic vision and program.... Read more.   “Alone our debts are a burden, but together they give us power.” Debt permeates nearly all aspects of today’s neoliberal higher education landscape. Our students accumulate mountains of debt while studying, and faculty labor under unpayable debt burdens which are particularly burdensome for contingent faculty, who often work multiple jobs so they can make student loan payments. The universities we teach and learn in are drowning in billions of dollars of debt owed to Wall Street.... Read more.   The NCSCBHE 2024 Directory: A Boon to Unions, Researchers and Educators The new 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Institutions in Higher Education by William A Herbert, Jacob Apkarian, and Joseph van der Naald is an excellent update of the last 2012 comprehensive directory issued by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining for Higher Education and the Professions... Read more. Upcoming Events Defend the University: Lessons from Brazil & Argentina on Resisting Fascist Attacks on Higher Education Wednesday, January 29 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT Universities in the United States are under conservative and neoliberal attack. The Trump administration has promised to intensify the assault on higher education. In this Jubilee School discussion, leading Argentine and Brazilian scholar-activists that have fought to defend their public universities from the Milei and Bolsonaro regimes will share lessons on how to defend higher education against fascist attacks. Register here.   Register for January 29 Coalition for Action in Higher Education: National Day of Action Organizing Call Friday, January 31 at 2pm ET/1pm CT/Noon MT/11am PT On April 17, we will hold a National Day of Action for Higher Education to assert our collective power to organize for higher education and protect the common good. Before April, we’ll be hosting a series of national organizing calls to plan the Day of Action events. Our first call is Friday, January 31, at 2pm ET/1pm CT/Noon MT/11am PT. Register here.   Register for January 31 Winning Healthcare in Minnesota and New Jersey for Contingent Faculty: Lessons from Oregon and California Wednesday, February 12 at 6pm ET/5pm CT/4pm MT/3pm PT On April 17, we will hold a National Day of Action for Higher Education to assert our collective power to organize for higher education and protect the common good. Before April, we’ll be hosting a series of national organizing calls to plan the Day of Action events. Our first call is Friday, January 31, at 2 pm ET/1pm CT/Noon MT/11am PT. Register here.   Register for February 12 Coalition for Action in Higher Education: Antisemitism, False Charges of Antisemitism, and Building Resistance Workshop Thursday, February 20 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT Part of building mutual solidarities, resistance, and narratives to fight false accusations of antisemitism is through widespread political education. PARCEO will share its approach and issues it addresses in its curriculum on antisemitism from a framework of collective liberation, as well as challenges that arise. Register here.   Register for February 20 Higher ed labor in the news College athletes were ready to unionize before Trump’s election. What now? – Vox Graduate assistants at Nevada universities call for union recognition amid struggles – KUNR Students, faculty argue Portland State University’s financial sustainability plan does more harm than good – OPB Union: Faculty pay not keeping up with community college enrollment – Daily Hampshire Gazette Unions make waves across Southern California campuses, learning from each other as they go – LAist Virginia higher education workers demand legislative action at Capitol rally – Cavalier Daily Want to support our work? Make a contribution. We invite you to support HELU's work by making a direct financial contribution. While HELU's main source of income is solidarity pledges from member organizations, these funds from individuals help us to grow capacity as we work to align the higher ed labor movement. Contribute to HELU From Helena Worthen and Evan Bowman, Co-Chairs of the HELU Media & Communications Committee.

SUNY and CUNY Faculty Support HELU Statement of "Unity for the Future of Higher Education"

Three Executive Committees for the faculty governance bodies of the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY) today pledged their strong support for the “Statement of Unity for the Future of Higher Ed,” which was issued by Higher Education Labor United (HELU) and eleven national unions, from AFSCME to NEA to SEIU to UAW, that represent campus workers. These three Executive Committees, which lead and represent

● the SUNY University Faculty Senate (SUNY UFS), the system-wide shared governance organization for SUNY’s state-operated and statutory campuses (Keith Landa, President);

● the SUNY Faculty Council of Community Colleges (SUNY FCCC), the system-wide shared governance organization for SUNY’s community colleges (Candice Vacin, President); and

● the CUNY University Faculty Senate (CUNY UFS), the system-wide governance organization for CUNY’s 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, and seven graduate, honors, and professional schools (John Verzani, President); released the following joint statement:

We endorse the HELU “Statement of Unity for the Future of Higher Ed” and urge SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr., CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, SUNY Board of Trustees Chair Merryl Tisch, CUNY Board of Trustees Chair William C. Thompson, Jr., and Governor Kathy Hochul to join the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of University Professors, nine other national unions, United University Professions, SUNY UFS, SUNY FCCC, and CUNY UFS in calling on the Harris/Walz campaign (and, indeed, all presidential candidates and campaigns) to commit to investing in public higher education like the public good it is.

We urge Chancellors King and Matos Rodríguez, Chairs Tisch and Thompson, and Governor Hochul to call on the New York State Congressional delegation to set an example by uniting to maximize federal investments in SUNY and CUNY; expand student access to, and the affordability of, public higher education; and enhance working conditions and worker protections on every campus.

We urge Chancellors King and Matos Rodríguez, Chairs Tisch and Thompson, and Governor Hochul to make New York State the national leader in college affordability and in advancing the mission of public higher education. We encourage Governor Hochul to take the national stage with the boldest Executive Budget proposal for SUNY’s 64 campuses and CUNY’s 25 campuses in New York State history in State Fiscal Year 2026 (SFY26).

SUNY UFS, SUNY FCCC, and CUNY UFS will be proposing SFY26 Executive Budget Resolutions for approval at our Fall 2024 Plenaries. The proposed resolutions will lay out our case that increased state support for each SUNY and CUNY institution is needed to promote student access and success, to make SUNY and CUNY the world-class public higher education systems that they can be, and to super-charge regional economic and workforce development. We pledge to continue building broad public support for SUNY and CUNY on the ground that these public higher education systems advance the public good by transforming our students’ and patients’ lives and future prospects.

To that end, SUNY UFS, SUNY FCC, SUNY, and CUNY are organizing the national conference Public Good U: Strengthening the Case for Public Higher Education in Albany, February 7-9, 2025, and encourage all stakeholders to attend.