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DAY OF ACTION ON 150+ CAMPUSES ACROSS US WILL TARGET TRUMP ATTACK ON
HIGHER EDUCATION
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Julia Conley
April 16, 2025
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_ "What is at stake is the defense of our fundamental democratic
rights and constitutional freedoms," said one organizer. _
Demonstrators rally on Cambridge Common on April 12 calling on
Harvard leadership to resist interference at the university by the
federal government., Nicholas Pfosi(REUTERS)
With universities across the U.S. facing attacks from the Trump
administration that "have been compared to the worst of McCarthyism,"
as one professor said, students, staff, and faculty on more than 150
college campuses are planning to participate in a National Day of
Action for Higher Education on Thursday.
"What is at stake is the defense of our fundamental democratic rights
and constitutional freedoms," said Blanca Missé, an associate
professor at San Francisco State University.
The day of action is being sponsored by a number of groups that have
been active in protests against Israel's U.S.-backed war on
Palestinians in Gaza [[link removed]] and the
West Bank, including Faculty for Justice in Palestine
[[link removed]], Jewish Voice for Peace,
and Palestine Legal; as well as groups including the American
Association of University Professors (AAUP) and Higher Ed Labor
United.
Staff and faculty unions at New York University and the City
University of New York are organizing the largest action, planned for
4:00 pm in Foley Square in Manhattan, while other events are being
organized from the universities of Alaska and Hawai'i to schools
across the Deep South.
The events are being organized amid "accelerating attacks on academic
freedom, shared governance, and higher education as a public good,"
said the AAUP.
Student organizers and activists including Mohsen Mahdawi
[[link removed]], Mahmoud Khalil
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and Rumeysa Ozturk
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detained by immigration agents in recent weeks for their
pro-Palestinian advocacy, while the Trump administration has
threatened universities with billions of dollars in funding cuts.
After Harvard University announced it would not comply with President
Donald Trump's demands for a crackdown on what he claims is
"antisemitism" on college campuses, the White House said
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it would freeze more than $2 billion in funding.
Columbia University, meanwhile, has collaborated with the Trump
administration—reportedly
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over the names of students to the government and refusing to protect
international students including Khalil and Mahdawi—prompting campus
protests and condemnation
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the school's philosophy department.
"We are committed to beating back creeping fascism in higher ed,
advancing worker control of campuses, and fighting for Palestinian
liberation as part of the liberation of higher education," said Bill
Mullen, a member of the Coalition for Action in Higher Education and
one of the co-organizers of the national day of action.
The day of action will include rallies, informational discussions,
teach-ins, and marches like the one planned at American University.
Students and supporters plan to march to the university president's
on-campus house where they "will post a list of demands on his door."
"These demands include protection of the most vulnerable, protection
of academic freedom, and protection of our university's core mission
of teaching and scholarship," said organizers.
The events come as a number of universities including Harvard have
taken action to fight back against Trump's attacks on First Amendment
rights and academic freedom on campus. Representatives of Yale and
Stanford expressed
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for Harvard's move on Tuesday, and the number of Big Ten Academic
Alliance schools that have passed resolutions to defend campus
communities has grown from one to four in recent weeks.
"As campus workers and citizens, educators and researchers, staff,
students, and university community members, we exercise a powerful
collective voice in advancing the democratic mission of our colleges
and universities," said
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labor and our ideas which sustain higher education as a project that
preserves and extends social equality and the common good—as a
project of social emancipation."
"On April 17, 2025, we will hold a one-day action on and around our
campuses to renew this vision of higher education as an autonomous
public good," they said, "and university workers as its most important
resource."
_Julia Conley is a staff writer for Common Dreams._
* Colleges
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