By Helena Worthen
The current HELU Steering Committee was elected at our founding convention in May 2024. HELU will be conducting elections for new leadership in at the quarterly General Assembly in November 2025. They will serve from January 2026 to January 2028.
We are alerting HELU delegates to this schedule because we know that work schedules for the next two years are already being negotiated or assigned. Volunteering to be on the HELU steering committee means a significant commitment of time, coming to meetings, doing committee work and being accountable for strategic decisions. Therefore, thinking about taking on this leadership role requires planning in advance.
This warning aside, there has never been a more important time for higher ed activists from all job positions in the higher ed workforce to step up and keep the ball rolling. HELU has a unique wall-to-wall and coast-to-coast mission. Our contact list has nearly quintupled in the first few months of 2025. The April 17 Day of Action, in coalition with other higher ed organizations, saw almost 200 separate events in 44 states. While we expect to be able to hire more staff to carry the workload that this comes with, we need activist leadership at the Steering Committee level. By organizing labor wall-to-wall and coast-to-coast, HELU actually might save higher education.
Current officers will propose an Elections Committee which will communicate more details members as soon as possible. Delegates who are thinking to put their names forward will want to be current on issues HELU is dealing with in our committees and will want to speak up at upcoming General Assemblies. The next HELU General Assembly is May 21, 2025. The term for the newly elected officers will continue until January 2028. May 1, 2028 is the date that the UAW and other unions have proposed for holding a general strike. The work between now and then would include building capacity toward that action.