June 2025 HELU Chair’s Message

From Levin Kim, HELU Chair

As we fight back against the Trump Administration’s budget reconciliation bill, we need to be united and prepared to face the attacks on higher education that will inevitably come this fall, whatever shape they may take. By revoking federal funding for higher education and pushing increased costs onto the backs of students and their families through skyrocketing debt, the current administration is poised to exacerbate vulnerable, exploited, precarious conditions for higher ed workers while decreasing the quality of critical education and research – a vicious lose-lose cycle. 

Higher education is for everyone, not just the wealthy. College and university campuses are places to learn, grow, and work with dignity and stability, as well as drivers of local economies and incubators of new ideas and innovation. We are building a fighting movement that is ready to defend this simple truth and win a world that actually works for all workers, not just the ultra wealthy. 
 
Last week, HELU members connected with labor organizers and activists from coast-to-coast at the first-ever Emergency Workplace Organzing Committee (EWOC) organizing conference in Detroit, MI and the Asian & Pacific American Labor Alliance biennial convention in Los Angeles, CA to lead workshops, panel discussions, and strategy sessions with our broader labor movement. As we look towards a summer of strengthening our coalitions to take on – and win – big fights coming our way, we stand united as a movement behind international & non-citizen workers, academic freedom and free speech, job security, fully-funded higher ed, an end to crushing student debt, and so much more. Sign up to join the fight here.