Skip to content

Higher Education

Book Argues That HBCUs Are Owed Reparations

August 24, 2021 Keenan "higz" Higgins, NewsOne. , , ,
The idea of reparations for Black people as restitution for the slavery of our ancestors is a conversation we’ve been collectively having for decades now — many different points have been made as to when and how money is actually distributed. With Adam Harris’ new book, “The State Must Provide,” that conversation is brought up once again, this time directing those funds towards the education system at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The author, an HBCU man himself from Alabama A&M University, was inspired to make the argument after he saw the stark differences between his own predominately Black campus and the University of Alabama in Huntsville — a PWI university with a small fraction of Black students in attendance.

Graduate Student Researchers Seek Union Representation

June 23, 2021 Katherine Swartz and Gabe Schneider, Cal Matters. , , ,
In one of the largest public employee organizing drives California has seen in over a decade, some 17,000 graduate student researchers at the University of California may soon become union members. Student Researchers United, a committee of graduate student researchers, filed a petition for union certification with the California Public Employment Relations Board May 24. Organizers say they are seeking better wages and healthcare benefits, written protections against harassment and discrimination and a formal grievance procedure. They’re also calling for more legal and political support for international student workers, and an end to irregular or late pay.

Barbara Bowen Passes The Torch

June 18, 2021 John Tarleton, The Indypendent. , , ,
It was the spring of 2000 and neoliberalism was flowering all across the land when a contingent of unabashedly left-wing professors at the City University of New York running as the New Caucus won control of their dormant faculty union. With the left excluded from power almost everywhere and most of the labor movement in a decades-long slumber, the New Caucus’s victory at the largest urban university system in the country marked a rare breakthrough. The newly elected leaders of the Professional Staff Congress had been protesting the defunding of CUNY for years. In March 1995, some of them donned their academic robes and joined 20,000 CUNY students in an unpermitted march near Rudy Giuliani’s City Hall that ended with mounted police charging into the crowd on horses.

Support Grows For Striking Columbia University Graduate Students

March 29, 2021 Josh Varlin, WSWS. , , ,
Today marks the beginning of the third week of the Columbia University graduate workers strike. The courageous struggle by over 3,000 graduate student-workers for improved wages, benefits and working conditions continues to receive support from workers at Columbia and more broadly throughout the US. Last Thursday, rank-and-file members of the Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC), which is affiliated with the UAW, defied an attempt by the union bargaining committee to shut down the strike with a deal that would have signified a de facto pay cut for the graduate students, taking into account inflation and union dues. Now, the university, whose president Lee Bollinger takes home $4 million every year, is significantly ramping up pressure on the graduate students to force them to give in.

We Can Win Student Loan Debt Cancellation

March 29, 2021 Umme Hoque, Commondreams. , , ,
On March 18, the Biden administration's Department of Education announced that it will cancel $1 billion in federal student loan debt held by 72,000 borrowers who were defrauded by for-profit universities. These students received subprime educations and worthless degrees, and then were burdened with debt often in the tens of thousands of dollars—all while predatory companies and their investors made millions.  The only reason this debt is now being cancelled is because debtors got organized. In 2015, students from for-profit, now defunct Corinthian Colleges Inc. launched the country's first student debt strike, refusing to pay their loans because they had been scammed by their school.

Higher Education Workers Are Organizing For Their Own Safety

February 22, 2021 Brian Wakamo, Inequality.org. , , ,
President Biden included $35 billion in funding for higher education in his American Rescue Plan. If this aid makes it into the final Covid relief law, college and university employees across the country will no doubt applaud. The pandemic has hit this sector hard. Around 260,100 university employees (14.6 percent of the total workforce) have lost their jobs since February 2020. Staff also make up most of the Covid-19 deaths on college campuses. But while federal funding is welcome, it is no guarantee of equitable treatment for higher education workers. Economic disparities and unsafe working conditions are motivating staff on a growing number of college campuses to build power through union organizing. One of the most ambitious university organizing efforts is taking place in Arizona. Late last year, staff at two schools — the University of Arizona and Arizona State University — formed United Campus Workers Arizona Local 7065, a “wall-to-wall” union representing all of the schools’ employees.

Study Finds Increase In Anti-Zionism At US Universities

February 12, 2021 Middle East Monitor. , , ,
The past few years have witnessed a significant rise in anti-Zionism across colleges and universities in the United States, a new study has found. Professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, Miriam Elman, said in a study published by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University that a majority of universities in the United States have turned into incubators of anti-Zionism, which contributes to creating a negative atmosphere against Jews on campus. Elman claimed that university and college officials respond to this by viewing it as political expression that does not justify any interference from authorities.

Lessons From A Decade Of Student Activism In The UK

January 13, 2021 Hector Rios-Jara, ROAR Magazine. , , ,
Ten years ago, tens of thousands of students flooded the streets of London protesting against fees, cuts and demanding free public education in the biggest student demonstration in British history. They took over the Conservative Party headquarters, hanging red and black flags from the rooftop and surrounding the building with barricades. The demonstration marked the rebirth of the British student movement and the beginning of a new generation of activists that would confront marketization and austerity over the coming decade. Though students could not stop the further commodification of higher education, they succeeded in generating a culture of anti-market resistance, popularized the demand for public free education and contributed to the rise of democratic socialism in the UK.

University Of Michigan Strike Showed The Power Of Student Organizing

January 7, 2021 Kalena Thomhave and Matt Sehrsweeney, Waging Nonviolence.  , , ,
As the winter university semester is set to begin, the coronavirus is surging. The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, like many universities reliant on tuition dollars, tried to reopen in September with a “public health-informed” semester, as the university called it. That meant a mix of in-person and remote classes and dormitories operating at about 70 percent capacity. Throughout the summer, the graduate workers union at the University of Michigan, the Graduate Employees Organization, or GEO, and Local 3550 of the American Federation of Teachers, had also been preparing for the fall semester by organizing against an unsafe campus opening in the face of a global pandemic.

Victories For Palestine Continued On US Campuses In 2020

December 31, 2020 Nada Elia, Mondoweiss. , , ,
Despite the challenges of online/remote learning, campus activism has not stopped over the past year. National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is currently planning their 2021 conference, celebrating 10 years of this annual reunion of SJP chapters from around the nation. And many student chapters have passed significant resolutions around some major issues, from censorship, to the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, to divestment and, most recently, the training of campus police by the Israeli military. As we wrap up 2020, here is a representative sample of campus activism since the beginning of the 2020-2021 academic year, pointing to what can be expected in 2021.

Latin American Academics Endorse Boycott Of Complicit Israeli Academic Institutions

December 16, 2020 Latin American BDS Coordination, BDS Movement. , , ,
In their statement, the signatories commit not to participate in any type of academic exchange or cooperation with or accept funding from complicit Israeli institutions or the State of Israel. In addition, they call on Latin American universities to suspend cooperation with complicit Israeli institutions, until Israel respects the UN- sanctioned political and human rights of the Palestinian people. The boycott of complicit Israeli academic institutions was initiated in 2004 and later became a key part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel's occupation and apartheid regime. It was launched in response to the institutional support of all Israeli universities...

Columbia University Students Are Preparing To Launch A Tuition Strike

December 10, 2020 Indigo Olivier, In These Times. , , ,
At the end of Novem­ber, mem­bers of the Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty-Barnard Col­lege chap­ter of Young Demo­c­ra­t­ic Social­ists of Amer­i­ca (YDSA) launched a tuition strike cam­paign against ​“exor­bi­tant tuition rates” which, they say, ​“con­sti­tute a sig­nif­i­cant source of finan­cial hard­ship” dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Stu­dent demands are wide-rang­ing and include a 10% reduc­tion in the cost of atten­dance, 10% increase in finan­cial aid, and an amal­ga­ma­tion of demands from dis­parate stu­dent cam­paigns, many of which were set in motion long before the pan­dem­ic began.

Lecturers Show Solidarity With Students Following ‘Racial Profiling’

November 18, 2020 Damon Wilkinson, Manchester Evening News. , , ,
University of Manchester, UK - Teaching staff held a show of solidarity with their students following a 'racial profiling' row at the University of Manchester. Lecturers also voiced their support for students protesting at the university's handling of the coronavirus crisis. A group of staff read out a statement at the Fallowfield Campus on Tuesday afternoon telling students: 'We are with you. We are here for you'. And they told black students and students of colour 'who may be feeling particularly hurt and excluded from the university at the moment' that 'you do belong here'.

Manchester’s Student Revolt

November 15, 2020 Sarah Cundy, Tribune Magazine. , , ,
Students ‌at University of Manchester ‌have‌ ‌been‌ ‌treated‌ ‌with‌ ‌contempt‌ ‌by‌ ‌management.‌ ‌Like‌ ‌those ‌across‌ ‌the‌ ‌country,‌ ‌we‌ ‌were‌ ‌lured‌ ‌back‌ ‌to‌ campus ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌promise‌ ‌of‌ ‌normality‌ ‌– a‌ ‌promise‌ that the ‌lecturers’ union, the UCU‌, ‌as well as ‌SAGE‌ ‌warned‌ ‌was‌ ‌inconceivable. We have been used as scapegoats for government failings, and forced to pay rents that 74% of us cannot meet – since students usually work to make ends meet. All this while Nancy Rothwell, our Vice-Chancellor who chairs the Russell Group, championed the use of chartered flights to coax international students into an environment that she must know is unsafe.

Students Push To Remove Police

November 9, 2020 Claudio Rivera, Stephanie Knezz and Shawn Smith, Truthout. , , ,
Student movements have always raised our current conception of justice and equity. From the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests, to the anti-apartheid movement and calls to abolish the police, student protests on college campuses have a context and history linked to substantial change in U.S. policies and practices. This is a rite of passage from which we all benefit. So, it is perplexing that Northwestern University (NU) President Morton Schapiro fails to recognize this as NU students demand a different and better sense of campus safety in their demand to abolish the police...
«12345678910»