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AMID RIGHT-WING ATTACKS ON EDUCATION, THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF
UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS ORGANIZES FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM  
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Eleanor J. Bader
March 14, 2025
MS. Magazine
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_ Project 2025 puts forward a total attack on education, closing the
Dept. of Education, including book bans and curricular limitations on
classes. They want to cancel the federal student loan program; revoke
Title IX policies; and end faculty tenure. _

Mia McIver of UCLA speaks to the press during a press conference
“Unions Defend Free Speech on Campus” on Capitol Hill on May 23,
2024 in Washington, DC., Photo by Michael A. McCoy // MS. Magazine

 

When the right-wing Heritage Foundation released its Mandate for
Leadership: The Conservative Promise—better known as Project 2025
[[link removed]]—in
2023, its authors laid out a comprehensive framework for undercutting
democratic governance. Moreover, its authors made no secret of their
antipathy to both public education and trade unions, putting
the National Labor Relations Act
[[link removed]] and Fair
Labor Standards Act
[[link removed]] in
their crosshairs. They also made it clear that they support the
elimination of the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau
[[link removed]] which works to ensure workplace
safety and increase opportunities for female job advancement. 

And then there’s education, pre-K through college. The Heritage
authors put forward an agenda that includes broadscale book bans and
curricular limitations on classes in African American, Latinx, LGBTQ+,
Feminist, Ethnic, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. In addition,
they support the cancellation of the federal student loan program; the
revocation of Title IX policies meant to protect students from
sex-based harassment, discrimination and violence; and an end to
faculty tenure.

But resistance to these potentially devastating incursions on human
and civil rights is growing, and unions, including the
110-year-old American Association of University Professors
[[link removed]] (AAUP), are strategizing, organizing and
fighting back in the streets and in courtrooms and statehouses across
the country. 

_Ms._ reporter Eleanor J. Bader spoke to Mia McIver
[[link removed]],
executive director of the AAUP, and Rotua Lumbantobing
[[link removed]],
the group’s vice president, early in the second month of the
Trump-Vance administration. Among the topics covered: Building union
power in repressive periods and building support for public education
as a common good.

_ELEANOR J. BADER:_ THE AAUP IS ORGANIZING A ONE-DAY ACTION ON APRIL
17. WHAT’S PLANNED?

_MIA MCIVER: This action will build on several previous Days of
Action. On Feb. 19, the AAUP was a lead organizer of a Labor for
Higher Education event that brought 10,000 people to protests on
college campuses and sites of power across the country. We’re
working with the Federal Unionists Network
[[link removed]] to protect all public sector
workers and participated with them on a protest that took place on
Feb. 25. Multiple labor leaders united to demand that the government
protect our health, protect our research and protect our jobs. The
April 17 Day of Action is the next phase and we’re working with AAUP
chapters in all 50 states to organize large, local actions_. 

_We have faith in higher education and know that a university
education can transform individual lives. We also know that a
university can transform communities and can serve as a community
anchor. The attacks coming from DOGE [[link removed]] and the
administration are putting lives at risk. When research is canceled it
has real implications for human life._ 

_Likewise, changes in how public education is offered. Right now, 48
percent of the higher education workforce is female, up from 27
percent in 1987. Unfortunately, these faculty members are heavily
represented in contingent positions, without job protections or
benefits. The undermining of tenure has increased faculty precarity
and helped adjunct and full-time instructors see their own economic
and social vulnerability. _ 

_We will highlight the ways these issues intersect on April 17 and
will oppose all cutbacks and rollbacks._

The attacks coming from DOGE and the administration are putting lives
at risk. When research is canceled it has real implications for human
life. 

_BADER:_ HOW ARE YOU BUILDING FOR IT?

_ROTUA LUMBANTOBING: We’re starting by building a stronger, more
militant, AAUP. Todd Wolfson
[[link removed]], Danielle Aubert
[[link removed]] and I were elected to lead the AAUP in
June 2024, and our mission is to transform the organization into a
fighting force. We’re currently in a period of political crisis and
we’ve been holding frequent, regular meetings for members and
chapter leaders. We see that our members are agitated. They’re angry
and ready to act._

_Historically, AAUP has functioned more as a professional organization
than a union. In the current period, we’re working to recruit new
members so that we can win better job security and higher wages for
everyone._ 

_In the past, campus administrations successfully weakened our ability
to mobilize by using divide-and-conquer tactics: Part-time versus
full-time professors; tenured versus untenured; STEM versus the
liberal arts. But no more. Colleges tend to be organized
hierarchically. We recognize that to build solidarity we need to talk
to each other and understand each others’ struggles. We’re
organizing training classes with a focus on building cross-campus
solidarity._ 

_Our training partner is Skills to Win
[[link removed]] which is
based at the Berkeley Labor Center and our Organize Every Campus
initiative [[link removed]] involves
training the rank-and-file to build strong campus chapters. We believe
that to move forward we need to be ready to answer the attacks on
us—whether book bans, the elimination of Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion programs, the assault on tenure or management refusal to
negotiate a contract—with increased militancy. We’re using the
crisis provoked by DOGE, the administration and the right wing to
build power for labor. _

_MCIVER: The Organize Every Campus campaign is training our members in
concrete skills: How to have one-on-one pro-union conversations with
people on their campuses; how to identify and recruit emerging
leaders; how to zero in on issues that are deeply felt and unifying
for faculty and staff. We’re also going beyond this and are
partnering with the Emergency Workers Organizing Committee
[[link removed]], a joint project of the United
Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America and Democratic
Socialists of America, to support widespread organizing for dignity,
respect and workplace safety. _

_We want our members to act like labor leaders, and whether they are
part of collective bargaining units or not, to understand the need to
coalesce and see the link between issues like book bans. DEI
elimination, universal school vouchers and the attacks on higher
education and safety net programs._

_BADER:_ WHAT OTHER ORGANIZING TACTICS IS THE AAUP USING TO BUILD
POWER AND MAXIMIZE RESISTANCE?

_MCIVER: There are many. We joined Democracy Forward
[[link removed]] in filing a lawsuit against Trump’s
Executive Order curtailing DEI programs and won a temporary
restraining order that stays the measure. We’re also working on
other legal challenges to the executive overreach we’ve seen since
Jan. 20. Although we know that lawyers can’t save us, we’re
fighting on all cylinders, including litigation._

_BADER:_ THE RIGHT CONTINUALLY REFERS TO HIGHER EDUCATION AS ELITIST
AND PROJECT 2025 RECOMMENDS ENDING THE COLLEGE DEGREE REQUIREMENT FOR
MANY FEDERAL JOBS. HOW IS THE AAUP REFUTING THIS STEREOTYPE AND
DEFENDING THE VALUE OF COLLEGE COMPLETION? 

_LUMBANTOBING: The vast majority of Americans who attend college
attend public programs, not elite institutions. But the right never
acknowledges this since it does not fit into the narrative they’re
promoting. _

_The challenge is to change the narrative. _

_Academics do not work in an ivory tower and we do not indoctrinate
our students. Instead, higher education prepares people to think for
themselves. We need to do a better job of engaging the public so that
they know what we do and why it matters._

_MCIVER: The AAUP leadership and membership have come out strongly
against Chris Rufo [[link removed]], the man who
came up with the fictitious bogeyman of Critical Race Theory
[[link removed]];
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis whose state leads the nation in book
bans; as well as Trump-Vance-Musk and Project 2025. The right knows
that universities are pillars of civil society which is why they want
to control them. What they’re doing is censorship and the AAUP is
standing up for free inquiry and free speech. _

_We want people to know what we do as educators and researchers. This
means rebuilding the public’s faith in higher education and
confidence that a degree has meaning and value. The idea of education
as a “common good” has been chipped at for years. We believe that
higher education needs to be accessible and affordable so that it can
fulfill this mission and function as the public good it was meant to
be._

_BADER:_ ARE K-12 AND HIGHER EDUCATION UNIONS WORKING TOGETHER ON
THIS AND OTHER ISSUES?

_MCIVER: Yes. higher education has a lot to learn from K-12 unions
regarding best practices for protecting tenure. On the other hand,
K-12 unions have a lot to learn from higher education about defending
academic freedom. _

_LUMBANTOBING: We have to learn from history. We know that the Red
[[link removed]] and Lavender
Scares [[link removed]] of the 1940s
and 1950s cost the jobs of many teachers suspected of being
communists, socialists or queers._ 

_Today’s challenges are similar and different. Our current enemies
are Chris Rufo, Ron DeSantis, Texas governor Greg Abbott, Donald
Trump, Elon Musk, the GOP and right-wing institutions like the
Heritage Foundation. They are well-organized and deep-pocketed._ 

_We have to keep this in focus. Alliances between different groups can
be difficult and messy but we need to align with other unions,
community-based organizations and faith-based groups if we want to
build power and fight back effectively._ 

_I like the word alliances. Alliances give us a way to pool our
resources even if we don’t have much. Alliances allow us to disagree
with one another without forgetting who we’re fighting and why. _ 

_BADER:_ ARE STUDENT-FACULTY ALLIANCES BEING DEVELOPED?   

_LUMBANTOBING: Absolutely. I often take a few minutes of class time
to inform my students about things that are going on on campus and in
the world. I teach at Western Connecticut State University
[[link removed]], and our governor has proposed budget cuts
across the university system. If he succeeds, it will devastate
students and damage the state’s long-term future. I told my students
about the governor’s proposal and gave them the dates when public
testimony could be offered. _

_In addition, AAUP chapter leaders in many places have gone to student
government meetings on their campuses to keep everyone informed. The
union always encourages faculty to share information with students._ 

_Graduate students, in particular, have responded to cutbacks and job
insecurity by forming grad union chapters on dozens of campuses;
similarly, there are now efforts to organize undergraduate workers in
several places._ 

_Our interests as workers overlap._

_Look, this is going to be a long fight. We need everyone on board.
This is why we’re developing a multi-pronged approach and building
alliances with students, other unions and the public. This is the only
way to stop the anti-worker and anti-union policies that are being
promoted by Trump and his administration._

_[ELEANOR J. BADER is a freelance journalist from Brooklyn, N.Y., who
writes for Truthout, Lilith, the LA Review of Books, RainTaxi, The
Indypendent, New Pages, and The Progressive. She tweets
at @eleanorjbader1  [[link removed]].]_

* Education
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* higher education
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* Project 2025
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* Trump 2.0
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* Donald Trump
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* Elon Musk
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* professors
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* adjunct professors
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* Faculty Unions
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* education unions
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* AAUP
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* Free Speech
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* book bans
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* student loans
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* Title IX
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* Tenure
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* Academic Freedom
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* American Association of University Professors
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* Civil Rights
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* Resistance 2.0
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