From Bruce Simon, SUNY Faculty Senate President and a member of Fredonia NY UUP
Hours before the signing of the federal budget reconciliation megabill, ten current and former leaders of SUNY’s and CUNY’s governance bodies issued a July 4 declaration. Candice Vacin, President of the SUNY Faculty Council of Community Colleges (FCCC), described it as “a solemn call to defend foundational principles of American higher education” against “unprecedented threats now facing colleges and universities across the country–threats to access, equity, academic freedom, shared governance, and the public mission of higher education itself.”
The July 4 declaration builds on mutual academic defense compact resolutions passed by the SUNY and CUNY university faculty senates in April 2025, the jointly organized national conference Public Good U in February 2025, and the joint executive committees’ statement in support of the Labor for Higher Ed statement of unity in October 2024. It closes with a call for colleagues to assemble Stand Together Teams on your campus, endorse the declaration to “show those who want to control or destroy us that we have not yet begun to fight,” and stand by to join future actions.
SUNY FCCC President Vacin and SUNY University Faculty Senate President Bruce Simon will be piloting coalition-building initiatives between governance and union leaders in their home campuses’ regions during the summer and scaling up efforts across New York State in the fall. Regional coalition teams will invite SUNY signatories of the July 4 declaration to plan and join advocacy and activism throughout the academic year.
As of this writing, the July 4 declaration has garnered 300 signatories from SUNY, CUNY, and other campuses. It will remain open to all throughout 2025, so please sign, share, spread the word, and consider developing similar coalitions on every campus, in every public higher education system, and in every state!