News from Higher Ed | July 2025

More than 5 million people peacefully and passionately joined “No Kings” rallies June 14 to say we won’t stand by while democracy is dismantled. The nonviolent, people-powered protests showed that whether you live in a red, blue or purple state, there’s a role for Americans from all walks of life to stand up for opportunity, dignity and a democracy that works for all. In her column, AFT President Randi Weingarten reminds us that to save democracy, the power of the people is something we must keep exercising.

 

As Donald Trump continues to implement his authoritarian agenda, students and professors are being stripped of the freedoms to learn, think, express themselves and be informed—and the impact on our society is grave. “It is not hyperbole to say that the survival of democratic government and a free civil society in the United States is at risk,” writes AFT President Randi Weingarten in the summer edition of American Educator. In this article, Weingarten explains how we can fight collectively to strengthen the freedom to teach and learn.  

 

On Sept. 14, 2024, Martin “Marty” Lujan, a custodian at New Mexico Highlands University, died shortly after working inside a campus building that had been closed due to overwhelming fumes from improperly stored chemicals. In the summer issue of American Educator, members of the NMHU Faculty and Staff Association and the NMHU Clerical and Facilities Staff Union describe how that death, and other reactions to dangerous chemicals, spurred them to help create safer spaces for workers, and how unions can protect workers in similar situations.

 

Medicaid; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; scientific research; diversity, equity and inclusion; access to higher education—so much of what we hold dear is under attack. What can we do? Plenty. Here are nine actions you can take right now to fight back, protect education and help save democracy.

 

 

The American Association of University Professors and allies have filed a lawsuit to challenge the Trump administration’s mass termination of grants by the National Science Foundation. This loss of grants will threaten scientific leadership and innovation as well as national strength and defense. The NSF is congressionally mandated to provide funding for underrepresented people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but these cuts would jeopardize that and other vital funding for scientific research. Image: Pobytov/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty images and DNY59/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

 

Faculty compensation is still struggling to recover from the pandemic, according to a new report from the American Association of University Professors: Real average salaries are 6.2 percent lower than in 2019. There is some good news though: Compensation rose 3.8 percent from fall 2023 to fall 2024, marking a second year compensation has exceeded inflation. The report—the AAUP’s "Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2024-25"— also highlights administrator salaries, salary equity and other faculty compensation statistics and warns that because of recent Trump policies higher education faces an “uncertain future.” Image: Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

 

In a time marked by fear, division and uncertainty, especially for immigrant communities, the AFT’s Together We Rise citizenship clinics are bright reminders that we can still build connections and strengthen resolve to preserve our democracy. At a recent clinic in Orlando, Fla., the AFT helped prepare more than 120 lawful permanent residents to become U.S. citizens: Each walked out of the event with completed citizenship applications, full of hope for a more secure future. Read more here.

Together with prominent activists, institutes, unions, legal experts and advocacy groups, the AFT published a full-page advertisement in the New York Times to expose President Donald Trump’s “big, ugly betrayal,” the billionaire-first agenda that Republicans rammed through Congress at the expense of everyone else. “This ad shows how Trump’s big, ugly betrayal takes food off the table, abandons public education, and erodes the social programs that support millions of hardworking Americans," says AFT President Randi Weingarten. "Rural hospitals and communities will be hit especially hard—all while the ultra-wealthy become even wealthier. The AFT and our allies know that we must organize, stand up and speak out together in solidarity to reverse the damage of this appalling legislation.”