Meghan McGowan, Health Sciences librarian and member of and HELU delegate to Wayne Academic Union (AAUP-AFT Local 6075)
President Trump’s so-called “compact” (actually a threat) asks higher ed administrative leaders to agree to a long list of changes that will fundamentally end academic freedom across the board as well as impact student loans, admissions, grant funding, hiring and more. To protest the likelihood that administrators will cave to this threat, faculty and staff across the country have organized days of action called Project Rise Up building toward a mass student strike on May 1, 2026. The first of these days of action was November 7.
As part of this campaign, Wayne Academic Union, AAUP-AFT Local 6075, which represents nearly 1,700 faculty and academic staff at Wayne State University, created a reel with some of our members. (View reel below.) This video celebrates our higher education journey and our commitment to academic freedom, while detailing the disastrous potential of Trump’s compact for higher ed.
On November 7 in Michigan, Local 6075 released our video on social media and in our newsletter alongside a continued push for people to contact our President and Board of Governors. At present, our members and greater community have sent nearly 800 letters have been sent to WSU’s Interim President Richard A. Bierschbach and its Board of Governors calling for a commitment to reject President Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
Together, we’re fighting back against the demonization of higher ed and we won’t cave to governmental bullying to water down our education system with the goal of elimination. Our students deserve better, and so do we.
More photos, from AAUP: You can see photos of the action in Philadelphia here and New York action protesting out billionaire Mark Rowan, the man behind the compacts, here. More news and photos from November 7 can be found on the AAUP’s Bluesky channel. (Ed.)