Higher Ed Labor Champions
Higher Ed Labor Champions are candidates and/or elected officials who have signed on to the Higher Ed Labor Champion Pledge.
This Pledge and our ongoing work with its signatories are part of HELU’s long-term Politics & Policy work. The Pledge is a nonpartisan policy advocacy activity and does not constitute election involvement or endorsements.
The Higher Ed Labor Champion Pledge
I pledge to support policies to:
- Enact fully-funded free public college via progressive taxation; support College for All as a first step.
- End the crisis of contingency by establishing fair labor practices, job security, and parity in pay and benefits. Institutions that receive federal funding must prioritize hiring more full-time faculty and ensure paths to permanency for part-time workers.
- Increase support for Minority Serving Institutions including HBCUs.
- Protect academic freedom, including rights to teach and learn.
- Restore and expand federal financial support for research to universities including at academic medical centers.
- Expand federal support: Title 1 for PreK to 20; triple Pell grants.
- Expand debt cancellation/PSLF, including for contingent workers in higher ed.
- Labor rights: overturn Yeshiva and expand collective bargaining; end “right to work” laws.
- Install AI guardrails to protect labor, learning, and research.
- Enforce shared governance: faculty, staff, and students have a say in how universities operate.
Become a Higher Education
Labor Champion
Are you an elected official or political candidate?
For press requests and other inquiries, please reach out to info@higheredlaborunited.org.