Bargaining for Higher Education
For too long, we’ve been forced to make impossible choices between raising tuition or cutting back essential staff and services while donors get tax breaks, endowments grow and management bloats. We’ve watched as campus expansions have continuously left poor, Black and brown workers, especially student workers, further behind.
College and University administrators must take care of the basic needs of all the humans their institutions support, not the construction loans or donors they “owe.” Even then, only a free, state-supported higher education system, fully funded by the wealthiest in this country, can lift up the next generation – it’s what we all need and deserve. We can absolutely make it happen.
For more on our higher ed campaigns, contact Sara at sara.myklebust@georgetown.edu.
Sample Demand:
“We demand that the university not collaborate with ICE, insist that ICE produce a valid warrant before entering university premises, not impose additional requirements for work authorization, and not participate with any federal worker registry.”
BCG Higher Education Resources
- “Transforming Higher Education in this Moment: Uniting to Bargain for the Common Good.” An article in The Forge on how campuses are fighting for the future of higher education.
- A tracker of the number employees in higher education laid off during COVID-19 and a tracker of Fall 2020 reopening plans. Both resources from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- “Here’s How We Not Just Reopen, But Transform Higher Education.” An open letter from higher education workers on how colleges, universities, and communities can repond to COVID-19.
- AFSCME 3299
- Racial Justice Committee
- “COVID-19 Austerity is Not Necessary at the University of California.” A webinar on university finances in the midst of COVID-19
- Rutgers AAUP-AFT
- Resources on COVID-19 including work-sharing, budget proposals, and more.
- “Equity, Security Dignity.” Wins from Rutgers’ past contract campaigns.
- Massachusetts Teachers Association
- Resources on COVID-19
- “Now More Than Ever.” A campaign to protect higher education in Massachusetts.
- University of Michigan
- “Analysis of LEO Faculty: Revenue and Expenses in Context for the University of Michigan Financial Situation.” On the role of lecturers at UM.
- “Austerity vs. Investment in U-M Students, Faculty and Staff.” On the coming decisions facing students and staff at the University of Michigan.
