We are excited to announce Labor's Big Book Forum for 2025! Scheduled for Fri 10/17, 2-4pm ET via Zoom, this year we feature Rudi Batzell's (@rbatzell.bsky.social) new book: Organizing Workers in the Shadow of Slavery (@uchicagopress.bsky.social)

"The report traces the AAUP's long history of opposing discrimination while defending academic freedom, dating back to support for desegregation in the 1950s. The organization has consistently argued that antidiscrimination efforts and academic freedom can and should coexist." #HigherEd

ACLU-Ohio challenges OSU’s expulsion of student as a violation of free speech www.acluohio.org/press-releas...

BREAKING: A historic coalition of national & California labor unions led by the AAUP filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the illegal & coercive use of civil rights laws to attack the University of California system & the rights of their members.

In this episode of AAUP Presents, we discuss AAUP v. Rubio, the lawsuit challenging Trump's policy of arresting & deporting non-citizens, students & faculty participating in pro-Palestine activism. Feat. Ramya Krishnan of the Knight First Institute @ramyakrishnan.bsky.social @knightcolumbia.org

EDIT 5 HBCUS have ordered shelter in place due to potential threats. Virginia state Hampton Alabama state Clark Atlanta Bethune Cookman🙏🏾

I’ve been thinking about how the white moderate think about free speech. Where calling for violence and the dehumanization of entire groups of people is merely supposed to be pluralism at work rather than an a threat to that pluralism.

Will create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that is hostile to teaching and learning - one student can start a massive state or national controversy at any time with an out-of-context phone video, etc.

SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool

NJ students in grades 6-12 will now learn about “the history of organized labor, notable strikes throughout history, unionization drives, and the collective bargaining process and existing legal protections in the workplace.” This is genuinely so important, and so good to see. Jersey strong, baby!!

Because structural thinking offers inoculation against authoritarianism, the Right has vilified terms that nod to structure (privilege, patriarchy, critical theory), and attacked the institutions trying to help people understand systemic problems. Refusing to use the terms emboldens further attacks.

I have an opinion piece in the New York Times today on how the labor movement has failed to step up to the moment in countering Trump, even as Trump unilaterally strips public sector workers of collective bargaining. Labor will die as a movement if this continues. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

These words by Michael Schwalbe counter any notion that academic freedom is a niche or quaint concern.

The airport, a jail, and a prison in Ohio's Mahoning Valley have emerged as a major part of the network the Trump administration is using to conduct mass deportations. As it has, residents and advocates are raising concerns. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/08/28/n...

Ohio college students are navigating the ramifications of the state’s new higher education law that bans diversity efforts, prohibits faculty strikes, and regulates classroom discussion ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/08/25/i...

Well that’s bad news for the colleges and universities pouring money into ai integration and innovation programs this fall

Ohio students are already seeing that the institutions they've known and loved are becoming shells of themselves thanks to SB 1, The Higher Education Destruction Act.

“We need a massive movement of higher ed workers & students...As higher ed goes, so goes democracy. But the converse isn’t absolutely true. Higher ed alone cannot save democracy, but we’re a critical part. We need a broader societal movement to save our country.” — Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

Contact form for the Ohio governor governor.ohio.gov/contact

We have to talk about this also as an insult to the National Guard, who are being used as political props by the President and governors. They signed up to serve their country and their communities, and are now being turned into playthings of a political operation. It’s a slap in the face.

Federal court refuses to block Alabama’s “divisive concepts” law, says university faculty classroom speech is government speech with no First Amendment protection. This dangerous development allows lawmakers to dictate what professors say in class. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Just in time to welcome students to campus… President Carter & OSU admin continue the assault on free speech by banning the time honored tradition of chalking on campus. Whether governments or administrators, once they start rolling back free speech, they don’t stop. fod.osu.edu/news/2025/08...

Ohio advocates have been approved to start collecting signatures to put a marriage equality amendment and an equal rights discrimination protections amendment on the ballot ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/08/12/o...

The AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship offers $25,000 and mentoring to advanced doctoral students from underrepresented groups conducting education research. Deadline: Nov 10, 2025. See image for details. #PhDFellowship #EducationResearch

Brace yourself: another round of redistricting is about to begin...this time to set Ohio's congressional districts for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections. www.daytondailynews.com/local/ohio-p...

Stanford's student paper sues Noem and Rubio, saying their policies cause non-citizen students to avoid expressing themselves freely in the Daily's pages due to fear of detention and deportation h/t @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.thefire.org/sites/defaul...

“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bill: Higher Ed Fights Back” Mon, Aug 18 7:30 pm et, 4:30 pt. Joined by Sara Garcia, a policy analyst for Senator Bernie Sanders on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP). @higheredlabor.bsky.social @aaup.org us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"The Ohio State chapter of the AAUP believes strongly that the principle of academic freedom & free speech must be thoroughly & vigorously defended, not by mouthing a commitment to values, but by principled actions in alliance with our colleagues across affected institutions" @osuaaup.bsky.social

Two-hundred page account of the Trump administration’s effort to arrest, imprison, and deport foreign students who had the audacity to exercise their First Amendment rights. @knightcolumbia.org @aaup.org @mesa1966.bsky.social knightcolumbia.org/content/post...

Ethnic Studies, Black Studies, Gender and Sexuality exist in contradiction to the university. Our intellectual projects demand the abolition of what it was: colonial, heteronormative, elitist, white supremacist. That is why the university AND this administration keep agreeing to erase us.

Arne Duncan's open letter in the Chronicle asks everyone in higher education to do exactly what we've created Stand Together for Higher Ed to do: "stand up, stand together, and resist." www.chronicle.com/article/an-o... PLEASE JOIN! Sign-up form on homepage standtogetherhighered.org #academicsky

ALL Haymarket Books are 40% off through August 22nd! ✊🏾✊🏿✊🏽

Student evals of teaching have been an infringement on faculty academic freedom and a gateway to race/sex discrimination all this time. Piles and piles of studies have proven it. Now that the Trump admin is hoping to use them in the purge, can we PLEASE abolish their use? It's beyond time.

For higher education to function, students and faculty must be free to think and speak their minds. Students, faculty, and all who care about higher education must stand up and fight back against this unprecedented continuing assault. We have no choice. 4/4

This rings true for me. I spent so much of this summer grappling with the fact that the parts of this job that I love are being stripped away while the most onerous aspects are being amplified. It is absolutely demoralizing.

If Columbia were democratically governed by a broad set of stakeholders (as opposed to its Board members' narrow self-interest) it would fighting Trump's fascist takeover. Not fueling it.

This has been the first major trial of Trump’s second term. Over eight days of witness testimony, it uncovered a wealth of new detail about the ideological-deportation policy and its effects on college and university campuses across the country. #AAUPvRubio

A federal judge in Boston will hear closing arguments tomorrow in AAUP v Rubio, our challenge to the arrests and threatened deportations of foreign students for their pro-Palestinian advocacy. I spoke with @democracynow.org about the case a couple of weeks ago. www.democracynow.org/2025/5/29/ja...

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this fascinating exchange Colbert had with Dua Lipa, when she asked him about the role his faith plays in his comedy.

I did not think this would be exciting as it is I don’t know why because it was such a long journey to finish it, but this is pretty cool. Today is the day my book arrived. I received the first copy! Shout out to all the people who reviewed iterations of this work!! ❤️❤️ @rutgersupress.bsky.social

We’re launching a website of revolutionary speculative fiction, art and poetry set in the world of Everything for Everyone! We’re calling it Project 2052. To support author honoraria, subscribe as a sustainer, make a one-time donation, or pitch a story here: www.commonnotions.org/project2052.

“While government funding is not a right, freedom from ideological coercion is a constitutional guarantee.” Explore this article discussing how actions taken by the Trump administration raised serious First Amendment concerns 👉

I've been anxious to talk about this because it feels so selfish, but time to move past that. I have a book coming out! "Who's Got the Power? The Resurgence of American Unions", comes out October 14th from The New Press. It's an optimistic book for perilous times. 1/

Could blue state governments for example collectivize their Departments of Ed to create some sort of pact to deliver what's needed to students in those states? Education is already a decentralized thing in the U.S. Title 1 and disability accommodations etc... are things that need attention for sure.

Court Addresses Evidentiary Privileges, Will Hear Testimony from ICE Officials Tomorrow. Below are highlights from Day 6 of our @aaup.org v. Rubio trial: knightcolumbia.org/content/cour...

@sfndhe.bsky.social is still working and coordinating to move the higher ed conversation away from defending against cuts and toward demanding funding for higher ed as a public good with fair tuition, labor, and community access.

I attended parts of these hearings this week and continue to be horrified by details coming out about ‘ideological deportations,’ harassment, and police-state surveillance on our campuses. This is not ok. None of this is ok.