With the new Biden administration and Congress come new opportunities to ensure significant, sustainable public investment in higher education.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the long-standing crisis in public higher education. Declining state support, the erosion of tenure and shared governance, the increased use of contingent appointments, and the loss of the faculty voice on campus are threatening the core mission of higher education in our society. Now is the time to stand up for a just, inclusive system of higher education — one that can help transform our society.
We need a New Deal for Higher Education.
Together with the AFT, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and allies and supporters across the higher education community, the campaign is proposing an ambitious agenda that centers on four main values:
- Building prosperity from the bottom up;
- Advancing social, racial, and economic justice;
- Strengthening democracy and civil society; and
- Fostering knowledge and innovation.
The New Deal for Higher Education platform will seek to recenter our public colleges and universities as a common good. In addition to addressing tuition costs, institutional funding, and student debt relief, we will pursue reforms related to racial injustice and inequities, labor practices, academic freedom and governance, federal research funding, technical and vocational education, and a host of other challenges that have diminished our national capacity to educate our communities.
To kick off the campaign, campaign allies held an online roundtable discussion on February 10 with AFT President Randi Weingarten, AAUP President Irene Mulvey, and campaign partners at Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education and the Roosevelt Institute.
Stay tuned for more updates on what promises to be an exciting campaign.