Brad Lander joined higher ed workers at The New School this May Day to stand up against ongoing admin attempts to dismantle shared governance & eliminate over 20 academic programs. Stand Up! Fight Back! @bradlander.bsky.social @newschoolaaup.bsky.social #DefendHigherEd #MayDay2026

From coast to coast, AAUP members showed up for May Day actions yesterday demanding a higher ed system that serves the public good: one that is affordable, protects scientific research, free speech, & academic freedom from political assault, & stands up for students' right to learn. #MayDay2026

RIGHT NOW! NYC HIGHER ED WORKERS ARE IN THE STREETS! @newschoolaaup.bsky.social @psc-cuny.org #MayDay2026

RIGHT NOW: St. John’s University AAUP are out this beautiful May Day demanding that President Shanley adhere to Catholic social teaching & honor workers’ rights by returning to the bargaining table & resuming negotiations immediately! #MayDay2026

HAPPY MAY DAY! A little inspiration for today’s actions: Check out this episode of Unruly Subjects with AAUP Council member & NYU professor Chenjerai Kumanyika: “Getting Unruly on May Day: Education Workers, Labor Power, & the Fight Ahead." @chenjerai.bsky.social @higheredlabor.bsky.social

Tomorrow!

“Art schools matter because they provide the space in which artistic & political imagination can take collective form allowing people to test other ways of seeing, making, & living. Financialization attacks those conditions...This isn’t incidental to the crisis of the university. It is the crisis.”

We are building a movement to #defendhighered & save our democracy. Join Us: Check the AAUP Starter Pack: 👇👇👇 go.bsky.app/3YidJ7k #academicsky

May Day Friday May 1. 3pm at the New School. 4pm march to WSqP. 5pm at Foley. We demand a stop to the lay offs and cuts! @aaup.org

NEW today in the New York Times: In the face of unprecedented authoritarian attacks, the AAUP is building a powerful and militant resistance movement in defense of American higher education, the freedom to learn, and our democracy. Join Us!

May Day Friday May 1. 3pm at the New School. 4pm march to WSqP. 5pm at Foley. We demand a stop to the lay offs and cuts! @aaup.org

"what could explain the University’s eagerness to embrace one, and only one, special form of diversity? Fundamentally, this hiring push is part of a broader effort to diminish the authority and autonomy of the faculty."

Why full-time faculty need to unionize now! www.newschoolfreepress.com/2026/04/17/w...

Read about the Amherst Compact – "the first of its kind in higher education" – a pledge from labor unions representing faculty and staff members at 125 campuses across the Northeast to work together toward shared bargaining goals. Learn more @chronicle.com: www.chronicle.com/article/dive...

Today, the AAUP & @aft.org launched our national policy platform to win back an American higher education system that protects the freedom to teach & learn & strengthens our democracy. Read it in full here: www.aaup.org/blueprint-st... 🧵

This is what we're fighting against. Join us. www.chronicle.com/article/proj...

Full-time salaries for most categories of faculty have remained about the same since 2002, adjusting for inflation, while admin pay soars. Faculty have had enough. We’re fighting back nationwide. ✊🏽✊🏻✊🏿 www.chronicle.com/article/amid...

Higher Ed workers in NYC showed up in FORCE this weekend at #NoKings. @psc-cuny.org @aaupcu.bsky.social @afthighered.bsky.social @newschoolaaup.bsky.social

This song is a thing of beauty, but what is happening at TNS is a fucking tragedy. The little indignities of faux austerity pile up year after year until suddenly the whole school is underwater. Solidarity forever w TNS students faculty and staff and @newschoolaaup.bsky.social

“The largest attempted firing of faculty currently taking place in the nation.”

Admin at The New School are threatening the cancellation of 23 academic programs. Students, faculty, & staff are fighting back, demanding a public meeting & an end to the manufactured austerity crisis. Check out this powerful song produced by TNS students: @newschoolaaup.bsky.social

“Higher ed workers & students together are becoming a new political force in our society.” —Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

The growth of access to higher ed in the 50s & 60s aimed to produce “a well-informed & democratic citizenry, w/ people who understand the need to participate in society.” The Heritage Foundation is attempting to reverse this. Fighting back is essential, & requires using every means possible.

Oscar-winner Ryan Coogler recalling how a college writing professor pushed him to become a screenwriter & the possibility of #Sinners being taught in film curriculums someday: “I have so much respect for professors…for dedicating their life to future generations & making sure their minds are solid.”

The far right's new politicized higher ed accreditor is illegitimate. "Rather than protecting educational quality, the CPHE appears designed to give partisan political actors a powerful new tool to pressure universities to conform to a narrow ideological agenda" — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

The New School AAUP slams the university’s plans to cut faculty & programs & offers solutions to increase collaboration between trustees, administrators, & faculty. @newschoolaaup.bsky.social

Brad Lander: “It’s pretty outrageous…once people think that they don’t have to follow the law because the president doesn’t, workers suffer, our universities suffer, students & faculty suffer.” St. John’s University can’t just UNrecognize faculty unions after 56 years. That’s not the law works.

Reinstate the Fired Six at VSU! Six tenured & tenure track faculty members were abruptly fired at Virginia State University without cause or any semblance of due process. Sign this petition to demand their reinstatement & a public commitment from VSU to honor tenure & end arbitrary dismissals.

JUSTICE FOR THE FIRED SIX NOW! We will not stop until these wrongfully terminated professors are reinstated with full back pay. Please Sign & Share the petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/sa...

“Abolishing gender programs & the lessons they have taught, will, Trump & his acolytes hope, undermine our ability not just to condemn, but also to critically analyze the policies & practices they want to impose.” Must Read by Joan Scott, member of the AAUP’s Committee on Academic Freedom.

Reminder: Never capitulate to tyrants. Fight Back. #DefendHigherEd #AcademicSky

Read and share AAUP-TNS's open letter to the Board. Its proposed plan of action is reasonable, generated by experts in higher education, independent fiscal analysis, and through the research of dedicated TNS faculty members. To mass lay-offs, we say NO. There is another way. tr.ee/DOebr7qOXy

"Censoring Plato is an academic absurdity and a textbook violation of academic freedom. A university that censors Plato—as well as other significant texts—abandons its obligation to truth, free inquiry, and the public trust." — AAUP President Todd Wolfson

“This would make excellent material for a Monty Python sketch. One can imagine the official censorship list: these dialogues you are permitted to teach; those you must pretend do not exist — and if you ever cross the line, you will be fired.”

An urgent take by @cnewf.bsky.social TNS ”senior management lack a renewed academic self-conception for TNS… so they have turned instead to a formulaic restructuring… disconnected from concrete educational practices & wholly controlled by fiscal crisis.” utotherescue.blogspot.com/2025/12/line...

I’m an alum (MA, 2012) and The New School has been long mismanaged. Like a lot of higher ed, there’s been wasteful spending and bloated admin. The faculty were the best part of my experience. Not surprised by this, but sad faculty are taking the brunt of the poor management.

An urgent take by @cnewf.bsky.social TNS ”senior management lack a renewed academic self-conception for TNS… so they have turned instead to a formulaic restructuring… disconnected from concrete educational practices & wholly controlled by fiscal crisis.” utotherescue.blogspot.com/2025/12/line...

There are many sound and well-researched plans from faculty and staff that address the deficit; they are being totally ignored in a flouting of the principles of shared governance. We demand the administration rescind the cuts. www.chronicle.com/article/were...

This year, the AAUP proved something powerful: When we fight, we win. Your gift to the AAUP Foundation will power legal challenges, advocacy & education that defend the core values of higher ed. Please donate at the link below. An injury to one is an injury to all. Together, we are stronger.

SFSU says the quiet part out loud, meanwhile The New School hides behind mission, vision, and “realignment.” A central purpose of VSP is to “lower tenure density.” Our contract and part-time faculty, and staff will get hard and first. goldengatexpress.org/114511/campu...

The New School was founded as an institution dedicated to critical inquiry and the free exchange of ideas. The current austerity measures at the university are dismantling the radical democratic aspirations it once represented.

The cuts at the New School in the @nytimes.com. It’s not too late to cut the cuts and stop the clock on this cruel timeline for staff and 40% of full-time faculty www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/n...

Thank you @bradlander.bsky.social! Please take two minutes and join our letter writing campaign, demanding the Board of Trustees take immediate action to STOP the MAGA-inspired violent austerity at The New School: actionnetwork.org/letters/stop...

The New School is a beacon of higher education thanks to the labor of its faculty & staff.  I strongly urge @thenewschool.bsky.social to extend the deadline for faculty to consider separation packages, engage in good faith & protect the programs that make New School a globally renowned institution.

Calling all students, parents, and friends of the New School! Send the Board a letter TODAY - the deadline for us to enroll in voluntary separation and early retirement approaches! Tell them to stop the cuts and chop from the top! To send a quick letter go to linktr.ee/aauptns

I‘m a New School grad; it’s fair to say that my life would not be the same without their unique blend of social inquiry & humanities. I have a career bc the staff and faculty showed me what was possible. Write in. We must stop these cuts. @newschoolaaup.bsky.social

AAUP-TNS explains how the New School is vanguard in its approach to cuts, but its a model that will be rolled out elsewhere. Our fight is your fight! Solidarity is the only way forward, and no data or consultant can control or manipulate it. Join our struggle today: linktr.ee/aauptns

Our most recent AAUP TV episode, "Fighting Extreme Austerity Attacks at The New School," features faculty from AAUP - TNS who discuss the ongoing crisis at The New School and how organized higher ed workers are fighting back. Full episode here👇

The New School was founded by Columbia University professors who wanted a university run by the faculty with minimal administration. For over 100 years it has been a unique institution with progressive values and incredible students and faculty from Ai Weiwei to Hannah Arendt. We are devastated.