On April 17, we will mobilize on campuses nationwide! Our struggles are linked, and so are our futures. On this national day of action and beyond, we commit to working together to build the universities and the democracy that our society needs and deserves.
While we prepare for the national teach-in, and the rallies, walkouts, and actions across our campuses, we want to share some of the shared struggles we are mobilizing around. As we build together, more resources on these issues and how we can organize around them, will be added to this page.
SEE BELOW FOR HELPFUL ONE-PAGERS ON STRUGGLES WE ARE ORGANIZING AROUND
"2020.06.13 Protest for Trans Rights, Washington, DC USA
165 47052" by tedeytan is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view
a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org
licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.
Political Interference (Resource)
Higher education is experiencing unprecedented waves of political attacks by state and federal officials. These attacks and interference take various forms to chill or ban the teaching of so-called divisive concepts such as race, racism, and LGBTQ issues. Campus communities are fighting back, and developing resources to help other communities to fight as well.
Labor and Unions (Resource)
We must address the massive increase in contingent faculty (and corresponding decrease in tenure-track faculty) over the last 50 years, the ways these faculty members are exploited by universities, how this casualization of academic labor deteriorates the health of universities, and what campus communities can do to raise and maintain the labor conditions of faculty everywhere.
"No new Jim Crow: Seattle March for Trayvon Martin"
by Anna Fern is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0. To view a
copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc/2.0/?ref=openverse.
DEI (Resource)
Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, training, and initiatives are currently a favorite target of right-wing politicians, think tanks, academics and campus organizations. This opposition extends beyond recent DEI efforts and extends to any teaching about any type of inequality, or the history of inequality.
"Palestine Solidarity Protest in San Francisco" by
Hossam el-Hamalawy حسام الحملاوي is licensed under
CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?
ref=openverse.
The Palestine Exception to Academic Freedom and Free Speech (Resource)
Recently there have been unparalled attacks on academic freedom and free speech on college campuses by state and federal officials, along with pressure from private university donors, to chill or squash speech that is either critical of the State of Israel or supportive of Palestinians. Together we are building recommendations for fighting back and educating our communities.
"Hollywood On Trial" by wgbhmorningstories is
licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. To view a
copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.
Lessons from History: Worse Than McCarthyism (Resource)
Ellen Schrecker, author Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America discusses the wave of McCarthyism which led to more than 100 faculty members losing their jobs, how that time period compares to attacks on academic freedom in our current moment, and what we can learn from that history to navigate the current wave of coordinated attacks on higher education.
"Corporate money is not protected speech"
by cactusbones is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
?ref=openverse.
Dark Money in Higher Education (Resource)
A root cause of many of the attacks on democracy on campus have stemmed from dark money from wealthy private donors. This money must be removed from higher education in order for public good to be centered at the university.