Shannan Clark, Montclair University, NJ and Delegate to HELU from SNDHE
Founded in 2020 during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education (SNDHE) is a group of teachers and researchers committed to rebuilding our colleges and universities so that they can be a true public resource for everyone. We believe that generous government investment in our system of public higher education, along with fair labor conditions for all campus workers, democratic institutional governance, and free undergraduate tuition, are vital foundations for an equitable and just society. We contributed to the original formation of Higher Education Labor United (HELU), and we were prime advocates for the 2021 College For All legislation sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Pramila Jayapal. We also serve a coordinating function among various organizations that are active in bringing about progressive change within higher education.
The Trump administration’s assault on higher education in the United States has been unprecedented in its scale and scope. While these attacks have forced all of us onto the defensive in various ways, we believe that it remains important for us to continue to imagine the new kinds of universities and colleges that we need for democratic renewal. After the damage that the Trump administration and its far-right allies are inflicting on top of the continuing pain of neoliberal austerity, our institutions of higher education will require a thorough reconstruction that must go well beyond the College for All program of 2021.
To encourage and facilitate the development of new democratic models of higher education as a public good, Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education has been partnering with the American Association of University Professors’ Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom and the Critical Legal Collective on several initiatives. One is a webinar series of panel discussions entitled Higher Education: Forgotten Pasts and Alternative Futures, which is intended to serve as a catalyst for thinking about how we can build toward a future of democratic institutional governance, tuition-free enrollment, fair and just labor conditions, academic autonomy, and protection of criticism and dissent.
On April 28, 2025, we held the first installment in the series, “Lessons from the CUNY Experience,” which examined both the history of the City University of New York as an example of higher education that was once tuition-free with open enrollment, and CUNY today as a site of struggle where the future of higher education is being contested. The discussion featured renowned historian of higher education and academic freedom Ellen Schrecker; Chaumtoli Huq of the CUNY School of Law and member of Critical Legal Collective; and political scientist Corinna Mullin, who was illegally fired from her position at Brooklyn College over the summer on account of her activism in solidarity with the people of Palestine. A recording of the event is available here.
The second installment of the series, “Indigenous Nations and Higher Education,” was held on September 24. Moderated by Jeremiah Chin of the University of Washington Law School, this conversation explored how Indigenous nations can provide a source of counter-sovereignty for functions of educational governance historically overseen by the federal government. Panelists included Eva Flying, president of Chief Dull Knife College; Megan Bang, professor of learning sciences at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy; Sandy Grande, professor of political science and Native American and Indigenous studies at the University of Connecticut; Amanda Tachine, professor of educational studies at the University of Oregon; and Bryan Brayboy, professor of earth systems science for the anthropocene at Northwestern University. A recording of the event is available here.
In addition to the ongoing Higher Education: Forgotten Pasts and Alternative Futures webinar series, which will have additional new installments coming in 2026, the three organizations have also partnered to convene a conference at Boston University on November 14 on “The University and Democracy.” Featuring nearly forty scholars, practitioners, and advocates, the conference’s plenaries and concurring sessions examine the crucial role for universities in our moment of acute and multifaceted democratic crisis. Although many assumed that universities would furnish a bulwark against authoritarianism, many of our most powerful universities have enabled the Trump administration’s open effort to exert “existential terror” on our institutions and our communities. “The University and Democracy” conference critically examines why universities have failed to protect democracy, and how we might liberate our institutions to reorient them toward a core mission of pursuing truth and knowledge for the common good. The conference program is available here.