“Free or low-cost college used to be the norm, but now, as austerity measures saddle students with debt and create precarious conditions for many academic workers, American politicians create policy that treats higher education as a luxury. And today, college remains a weapon in the culture wars, with attacks on affirmative action, diversity, equity and […]
Thursday, December 15, 2022; 4:30pm PT/ 5:30pm MT/ 6:30pm CT/ 7:30pm ET A lot has happened – and is still happening! – with higher ed labor in 2022. Join us for a wall-to-wall, coast-to-coast celebration of 2022 organizing and action across the US and internationally, and to prepare for the long fight ahead. Union members with
Higher Ed Labor 2022 Wrap Up: Building Solidarity for 2023 Read More »
Although labor rights at public universities are determined by state law and aren’t affected by the Columbia decision, the massive strike at the UC system has had a spillover effect across workers in higher education, said Todd Wolfson, a Rutgers professor and vice-president of the union representing graduate student workers, postdoctoral associates, and faculty at the university. “They
Bloomberg Law: Yale Union Election Is Latest Move in Campus Labor Renaissance Read More »
Isolated actions are not going to solve a systemic problem. Higher education workers of all stripes must unite. Tenured faculty in particular must build solidarity with their more precarious coworkers. Labor justice for campus workers and education justice for students and alumni go hand in hand. The future of our democracy, which depends on an
Protecting freedom of expression is vital, but it is useless to divorce disputes about the content of research and teaching from the attacks on the very structures of higher education that house, fund, and govern it. Supporters of free speech must work with and learn from labor organizers, debt resisters, community organizers, advocates for racial
Chronicle of Higher Ed: The Real Fight for Academic Freedom Read More »
Power Despite Precarity is a book to build with. It arrives just in time, amid campus labor upsurges and the formation of a promising new progressive labor coalition Higher Ed Labor United (HELU), where there is a new chance for strategizing a national movement.1 Drawing from lives of sustained practice, authors Joe Berry and Helena Worthen connect realms
New Politics: 25 Truths to Build Campus Power Despite Precarity Read More »
When I joined my first meeting of Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education (SFNDHE) in January 2021, I was a bit awestruck. The group’s founder, Jennifer Mittelstadt, and charter members Eileen Boris, Marisa Chappell, Nan Enstad, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Lisa Levenstein, Annelise Orleck, and Donna Murch, were all historians I had long admired. I was also
Labor: Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Ed Read More »
Higher Ed Labor United can build on more than 25 years of previous organizing—and starts off with a deeper base and broader vision. READ: Helena Worthen in Convergence: “Can HELU Ride the Tiger?”
Convergence: Can HELU Ride the Tiger? Read More »
“We are all campus workers”: New coalition confronts crisis in higher ed with coordination and collaboration READ: Tracy Berger, Aimee Loiselle, Trent McDonald, and Helena Worthen in Convergence: “Higher Ed Labor Unites for All: Faculty, Staff, and Students”
Convergence: Higher Ed Labor Unites for All Read More »
“How do we have power?” Stacy Davis Gates asked hundreds of academic workers on Zoom this January. The answer, she explained, was to “expand the definition of labor and union,” to bring in members of the communities in which Chicago public schools are situated, building coalitions to amplify demands and grow a movement for equity and justice—an approach called
Nonprofit Quarterly: Wall to Wall, Coast to Coast Read More »