Taking Action for Higher Education is a workbook to assist university workers in assessing personal risk and making decisions about how and when to take action to resist fascism.
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Like this project? It’s a companion to my earlier Finding Your Purpose.
Taking Action in Higher Education
The moment for action has arrived.
For too long, many of us have stood quietly by as the universities that employ us lead our nation into fascism.
It is easy to forget, in this moment of moral opacity, that universities exist to serve the public good. But at its core, the mission of the university is to provide access to education and build public knowledge. In fulfilling this mission, the university has the potential to liberate minds and hearts, to save lives, and to empower the people who will build a better future.
Most university workers labor in service to this goal, from janitorial and IT staff to librarians, instructors, and researchers. For many of us, this is a labor of love and of faith. We do the work of higher education because we believe in the mission of the institution, and in the potential of our work to create change. We do this work despite the oppressive awareness that the university is moving ever further from the mission it was built to achieve.
It is unsurprising that as university workers, many of us feel ambivalent about our relationship to our institutions, and exhausted by never-ending attacks on education from all directions. Many of us have never known a university that was not heavily invested in oil and defense and subject to the whims of corporate and partisan interests. We may feel that good work happens despite, not because of, the university.
It is natural to want to prioritize our work, our survival, and our ability to make a living over the latest high-profile higher-ed drama. But we do not believe that this is an option any longer. As our nation descends into fascism, the university has become one of the fronts in the battle for democracy.
It is through the university that extremists are seeking to disseminate misinformation, silence truth, and consolidate wealth and power. It is the urgent obligation of all university workers to stand with our students and be leaders in our community.
As we make the decision to take action in support of free and funded higher education, we need to acknowledge that this moment is not without risk. There have been targeted attacks on the lives and careers of university workers who have taken a stand. Some people have lost their jobs. Some have had to find a new profession. Academic contingency and the erosion of tenure protections have made some of us particularly vulnerable.
We wrote this resource because we didn’t want to be silenced or frozen by fear or uncertainty. The first half contains information about your rights and risks as a university worker. The second half has exercises to help you understand your position. Use it for yourself, or try working through it collectively. We are always stronger together.
The goal is to empower academic workers to take action in ways that feel appropriate given the gravity of the moment and the very real consequences that we all might face.