AAUP President Todd Wolfson says unions like his are key to fighting Trump’s attacks on the bedrock of democracy.
By Eleanor J. Bader ,
December 5, 2024
Three unions representing roughly 9,000 staff and faculty workers went on strike at Rutgers University in April 2023.Kyle Handojo
Two days after Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, Todd Wolfson, the newly installed president of the 109-year-old American Association of University Professors, (AAUP) issued a statement committing the organization to the ongoing defense of academic freedom and shared governance.
“While the results of this presidential election are disappointing,” he wrote on the AAUP website, “we remain steadfast in our commitment to our principles and ensuring that future generations of Americans are afforded the opportunity that higher education provides.”
Among the most pressing concerns, he wrote, are the decline in public funding for higher education, ballooning student debt, and attacks on the freedom to teach and learn.
“Without a thriving, inclusive higher education system that serves the public good, the majority of Americans will be excluded from meaningful participation in our democracy and this country will move backward,” Wolfson predicted. “We will do everything in our power to protect our institutions, faculty, staff and students and stand up against those seeking to violate academic freedom and the core principle of higher education.”
It’s a daunting challenge.
According to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, as of January 2024, slightly more than 400,000 faculty, 27 percent of the total, were union members. But Wolfson, a seasoned academic activist, is not cowed by the enormity of organizing the unorganized 73 percent. His experience tells him that activating them is possible.
As president of one of three unions that waged a successful strike at Rutgers University in 2023, Wolfson knows how to build power, work in coalition, and stoke sustained rank-and-file involvement. He also understands that growing the AAUP’s membership, training new members, and analyzing and then opposing legislation to limit freedom of speech, freedom to teach and freedom to organize will require a multitiered strategy.
In this exclusive interview for Truthout, Wolfson speaks to reporter Eleanor J. Bader about the AAUP’s agenda for 2025 and his vision for the future of academic labor.
Eleanor J. Bader: Let’s start with organizing. How does the AAUP plan to grow the union and bring in new members?
Todd Wolfson: We’re working to build member density, getting folks on every campus organized and trained. We did an organizer training in mid-November. Three hundred people from 70 campus chapters spent 12 hours using Skills to Win, a series of materials developed by the late union organizer/activist, Jane McAlevey. Part of the training is skill building: How to conduct one-on-one conversations; how to identify potential leaders; how to chair a meeting; and how to build and grow a vibrant union chapter. The other part of the training includes a discussion of the political economy to deepen everyone’s understanding of disinvestment in higher education and the rampant fascist attacks against colleges and universities. Our campaign is called Organize Every Campus. We have to do this because threats are looming at the national level and on multiple campuses.
We know what we are fighting for — fully funded higher education — and know that higher education is the lifeblood of any democracy.
Tell me about the differing attacks on campuses throughout the country.
There are so many. The University of Connecticut has announced plans to cut many majors and impose massive budget cuts. The University of North Texas has perused syllabi and is forcing faculty to change what is being taught in Gender Studies and African studies courses. At Muhlenberg College, tenured anthropology professor Maura Finkelstein was dismissed after she expressed support for the Palestinian people and criticized Israel’s genocidal policies. At Rutgers, adjunct writing instructors have been let go and at Portland State University in Oregon, nearly 100 layoffs have been announced. I want to stress that all of these attacks began before Trump took office.
It sounds like a huge organizing job to fight these proposed cuts.
For sure. The AAUP needs to figure out how to fight back on each campus while simultaneously working to understand how what’s happening fits into the national struggle to defend and protect higher education. One of my mentors is Willie Baptist, who now works at the Kairos Center. Willie taught me that organizers need, first, to be committed to the work. This requires political clarity. On campuses, it means understanding the threat fascism poses to higher education. It also requires an understanding of the university as an economic entity. Skill competency, including the ability to build community, is also key. Basically, we have to be able to foster healthy relationships and encourage and inspire others.
“While the results of this presidential election are disappointing,” he wrote on the AAUP website, “we remain steadfast in our commitment to our principles and ensuring that future generations of Americans are afforded the opportunity that higher education provides.”
Among the most pressing concerns, he wrote, are the decline in public funding for higher education, ballooning student debt, and attacks on the freedom to teach and learn.
“Without a thriving, inclusive higher education system that serves the public good, the majority of Americans will be excluded from meaningful participation in our democracy and this country will move backward,” Wolfson predicted. “We will do everything in our power to protect our institutions, faculty, staff and students and stand up against those seeking to violate academic freedom and the core principle of higher education.”
It’s a daunting challenge.
According to the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, as of January 2024, slightly more than 400,000 faculty, 27 percent of the total, were union members. But Wolfson, a seasoned academic activist, is not cowed by the enormity of organizing the unorganized 73 percent. His experience tells him that activating them is possible.
As president of one of three unions that waged a successful strike at Rutgers University in 2023, Wolfson knows how to build power, work in coalition, and stoke sustained rank-and-file involvement. He also understands that growing the AAUP’s membership, training new members, and analyzing and then opposing legislation to limit freedom of speech, freedom to teach and freedom to organize will require a multitiered strategy.
In this exclusive interview for Truthout, Wolfson speaks to reporter Eleanor J. Bader about the AAUP’s agenda for 2025 and his vision for the future of academic labor.
Eleanor J. Bader: Let’s start with organizing. How does the AAUP plan to grow the union and bring in new members?
Todd Wolfson: We’re working to build member density, getting folks on every campus organized and trained. We did an organizer training in mid-November. Three hundred people from 70 campus chapters spent 12 hours using Skills to Win, a series of materials developed by the late union organizer/activist, Jane McAlevey. Part of the training is skill building: How to conduct one-on-one conversations; how to identify potential leaders; how to chair a meeting; and how to build and grow a vibrant union chapter. The other part of the training includes a discussion of the political economy to deepen everyone’s understanding of disinvestment in higher education and the rampant fascist attacks against colleges and universities. Our campaign is called Organize Every Campus. We have to do this because threats are looming at the national level and on multiple campuses.
We know what we are fighting for — fully funded higher education — and know that higher education is the lifeblood of any democracy.
Tell me about the differing attacks on campuses throughout the country.
There are so many. The University of Connecticut has announced plans to cut many majors and impose massive budget cuts. The University of North Texas has perused syllabi and is forcing faculty to change what is being taught in Gender Studies and African studies courses. At Muhlenberg College, tenured anthropology professor Maura Finkelstein was dismissed after she expressed support for the Palestinian people and criticized Israel’s genocidal policies. At Rutgers, adjunct writing instructors have been let go and at Portland State University in Oregon, nearly 100 layoffs have been announced. I want to stress that all of these attacks began before Trump took office.
It sounds like a huge organizing job to fight these proposed cuts.
For sure. The AAUP needs to figure out how to fight back on each campus while simultaneously working to understand how what’s happening fits into the national struggle to defend and protect higher education. One of my mentors is Willie Baptist, who now works at the Kairos Center. Willie taught me that organizers need, first, to be committed to the work. This requires political clarity. On campuses, it means understanding the threat fascism poses to higher education. It also requires an understanding of the university as an economic entity. Skill competency, including the ability to build community, is also key. Basically, we have to be able to foster healthy relationships and encourage and inspire others.
The Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, AAUP-AFT and AAUP-BHSNJ strike at Rutgers University, calling for living wages and equal pay.Kyle Handojo
Since 1980, when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its decision in NLRB v. Yeshiva University, full-time faculty at private colleges and universities have been classified as managerial employees and excluded from NLRB protections. That obviously impedes the AAUP’s ability to recruit new members at private institutions. Is there any way around this?
The AAUP has about 45,000 members. Most, 35,000, are part of bargaining units but 10,000 are in what we call Advocacy Chapters. These Chapters do not have bargaining rights and are largely based in private colleges or universities or are located in states where public workers do not have the right to bargain collectively. Most of them are in the South or Southwest.
Although Advocacy Chapters are prohibited from bargaining over wages and benefits, they are not powerless. At the University of Pennsylvania, for example, the Advocacy Chapter has grown and members are organizing around the university’s parental leave policy. Penn is also Ground Zero in the fight to protect pro-Palestinian speech.
But I also want to note that many large public universities are not organized. Penn State, the largest public university in Pennsylvania, has not unionized. Ohio State and the University of Michigan are also unorganized, so we have a lot of work to do to bring every public university into the AAUP or other education unions.
You were a professor at Rutgers and led one of the unions that waged a successful strike there last April. Workers won significant raises for graduate students, postdocs, and others. The union also successfully pushed back against longstanding state disinvestment from public higher ed. Are the lessons from this strike transferable to other schools?
Rutgers has 30,000 employees in 20 different bargaining units, including two police unions. There are 70,000 students. We started organizing during the pandemic. I was the president of one of the unions when the campus shut down and we organized to demand that Rutgers — as a public university — serve the public good. We demanded that they retain staff and adjunct faculty since layoffs would have ended their health care coverage during a global health crisis. We won. That built unity. Later, when our contract came up, we were able to bring three unions representing 9000 workers together to shut down the university. This is why a wall-to-wall union, uniting all workers regardless of job title, makes sense. Management typically works to divide workers during negotiations so the more unity you can build, the less effective divide-and-conquer tactics are.
Does the AAUP collaborate with other education unions?
This really is a new day. In September, all of the unions with members working in higher education — the AAUP, the AFT, NEA, SEIU, AFSCME, UNITE HERE, Higher Education Labor United (HELU) — came together and aligned our vision for the future. This had never happened before. The AAUP and HELU were the only groups composed solely of educators but every one of these unions is fully committed to defending higher education from attacks by the right. We see each other as partners. Along with noneducational allies like the ACLU, we are strategizing about protecting our members and fighting back against attacks against us.
The AAUP is here to remind people that higher ed is the bedrock of democracy.
We’re also partnering with Bargaining for the Common Good to build coalitions with community groups. The Chicago Teachers Union and the unions at Rutgers are models of community-academic partnership and have pushed for housing and mental health support. We’ve learned from them.
In August 2024, the AAUP announced that it will no longer categorically oppose academic boycotts. The shift recognized that boycotts “can instead be legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.” Some AAUP members have pushed back against this decision and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an organization funded by the right-wing Donors Trust and Koch Foundation, has put the AAUP in its crosshairs. Is this a concern?
Making enemies is part of the job. My work, and the work of others in the AAUP, is to reiterate a set of principles about how and why higher education matters. The right wing and the Republicans operate as an echo chamber and efforts to dehumanize us are part of that. We know what we are fighting for — fully funded higher education — and know that higher education is the lifeblood of any democracy, a way to ensure that people have the critical thinking skills to understand the world. Whether the right attacks us for teaching about race, gender or the atrocities happening in Gaza, we’re protecting free speech. Nothing we’re doing is radical. It’s simply the foundation of a healthy democracy. So even when the right takes cheap shots at us, we are not diverted but are instead even more resolute about building worker power and defending our campuses.
At the same time, I know that people have strong feelings about what we’re doing. Gaza is one example. Nonetheless, I believe we can talk our way through our differences.
What do you consider the biggest challenges facing the AAUP under the Trump administration?
I worry that the administration will try to expand the definition of antisemitism to include any criticism of Israel and will threaten colleges with the loss of federal funding using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in all programs and activities that receive federal money.
This is a big, serious threat. Criticism of Israel is not the same as criticism of the Jewish people but I am concerned about the safety of students, faculty and staff who speak out about Gaza or the human tragedies unfolding there. I actually think many college presidents will stand with us on this and will see this threat as an attack on academic integrity.
Since 1980, when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued its decision in NLRB v. Yeshiva University, full-time faculty at private colleges and universities have been classified as managerial employees and excluded from NLRB protections. That obviously impedes the AAUP’s ability to recruit new members at private institutions. Is there any way around this?
The AAUP has about 45,000 members. Most, 35,000, are part of bargaining units but 10,000 are in what we call Advocacy Chapters. These Chapters do not have bargaining rights and are largely based in private colleges or universities or are located in states where public workers do not have the right to bargain collectively. Most of them are in the South or Southwest.
Although Advocacy Chapters are prohibited from bargaining over wages and benefits, they are not powerless. At the University of Pennsylvania, for example, the Advocacy Chapter has grown and members are organizing around the university’s parental leave policy. Penn is also Ground Zero in the fight to protect pro-Palestinian speech.
But I also want to note that many large public universities are not organized. Penn State, the largest public university in Pennsylvania, has not unionized. Ohio State and the University of Michigan are also unorganized, so we have a lot of work to do to bring every public university into the AAUP or other education unions.
You were a professor at Rutgers and led one of the unions that waged a successful strike there last April. Workers won significant raises for graduate students, postdocs, and others. The union also successfully pushed back against longstanding state disinvestment from public higher ed. Are the lessons from this strike transferable to other schools?
Rutgers has 30,000 employees in 20 different bargaining units, including two police unions. There are 70,000 students. We started organizing during the pandemic. I was the president of one of the unions when the campus shut down and we organized to demand that Rutgers — as a public university — serve the public good. We demanded that they retain staff and adjunct faculty since layoffs would have ended their health care coverage during a global health crisis. We won. That built unity. Later, when our contract came up, we were able to bring three unions representing 9000 workers together to shut down the university. This is why a wall-to-wall union, uniting all workers regardless of job title, makes sense. Management typically works to divide workers during negotiations so the more unity you can build, the less effective divide-and-conquer tactics are.
Does the AAUP collaborate with other education unions?
This really is a new day. In September, all of the unions with members working in higher education — the AAUP, the AFT, NEA, SEIU, AFSCME, UNITE HERE, Higher Education Labor United (HELU) — came together and aligned our vision for the future. This had never happened before. The AAUP and HELU were the only groups composed solely of educators but every one of these unions is fully committed to defending higher education from attacks by the right. We see each other as partners. Along with noneducational allies like the ACLU, we are strategizing about protecting our members and fighting back against attacks against us.
The AAUP is here to remind people that higher ed is the bedrock of democracy.
We’re also partnering with Bargaining for the Common Good to build coalitions with community groups. The Chicago Teachers Union and the unions at Rutgers are models of community-academic partnership and have pushed for housing and mental health support. We’ve learned from them.
In August 2024, the AAUP announced that it will no longer categorically oppose academic boycotts. The shift recognized that boycotts “can instead be legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.” Some AAUP members have pushed back against this decision and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an organization funded by the right-wing Donors Trust and Koch Foundation, has put the AAUP in its crosshairs. Is this a concern?
Making enemies is part of the job. My work, and the work of others in the AAUP, is to reiterate a set of principles about how and why higher education matters. The right wing and the Republicans operate as an echo chamber and efforts to dehumanize us are part of that. We know what we are fighting for — fully funded higher education — and know that higher education is the lifeblood of any democracy, a way to ensure that people have the critical thinking skills to understand the world. Whether the right attacks us for teaching about race, gender or the atrocities happening in Gaza, we’re protecting free speech. Nothing we’re doing is radical. It’s simply the foundation of a healthy democracy. So even when the right takes cheap shots at us, we are not diverted but are instead even more resolute about building worker power and defending our campuses.
At the same time, I know that people have strong feelings about what we’re doing. Gaza is one example. Nonetheless, I believe we can talk our way through our differences.
What do you consider the biggest challenges facing the AAUP under the Trump administration?
I worry that the administration will try to expand the definition of antisemitism to include any criticism of Israel and will threaten colleges with the loss of federal funding using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VI prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in all programs and activities that receive federal money.
This is a big, serious threat. Criticism of Israel is not the same as criticism of the Jewish people but I am concerned about the safety of students, faculty and staff who speak out about Gaza or the human tragedies unfolding there. I actually think many college presidents will stand with us on this and will see this threat as an attack on academic integrity.
The Rutgers University strike began on April 10, 2023, and resulted in an agreement that included across-the-board salary increases.Alan Maass
What are your immediate goals once Trump and Vance take office?
We have to take it one step at a time. First, we have to figure out how to defend each campus. We can’t allow people to become complacent about repression or attacks on speech. We need to get our message about the value of higher education out. We need everyone — engineers, physicists, sociologists, poets — to talk about why higher education matters. This is the only way we can counter the messaging of the right. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others on the right continually devalue higher ed. People need to hear counternarratives.
We also need to fully deconstruct Project 2025 to see the specifics of the attacks and address them. We already see that the right is trying to weaponize Title VI and weaken the accreditation process to make it easier to cut funding for programs that they oppose.
Look, the political situation is scary right now. It’s dire. But there is also a silver lining. The first time Trump was in office people flocked to progressive organizations and got involved in social justice efforts. I expect this to happen again.
Any final thoughts?
This is not a moment to shrink or back off. It’s a moment to grow and build power. We in the AAUP are ready to fight for what we need — fully funded higher education, an end to student debt, and respect for every worker on every campus. This is just one moment in a long struggle. The AAUP is here to remind people that higher ed is the bedrock of democracy.This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.
Eleanor J. Bader is an award-winning journalist who writes about domestic social issues, movements for social change, books and art. In addition to Truthout, she writes for The Progressive, Lilith Magazine and blog, the LA Review of Books, Rain Taxi, The Indypendent and other online and print publications.
What are your immediate goals once Trump and Vance take office?
We have to take it one step at a time. First, we have to figure out how to defend each campus. We can’t allow people to become complacent about repression or attacks on speech. We need to get our message about the value of higher education out. We need everyone — engineers, physicists, sociologists, poets — to talk about why higher education matters. This is the only way we can counter the messaging of the right. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others on the right continually devalue higher ed. People need to hear counternarratives.
We also need to fully deconstruct Project 2025 to see the specifics of the attacks and address them. We already see that the right is trying to weaponize Title VI and weaken the accreditation process to make it easier to cut funding for programs that they oppose.
Look, the political situation is scary right now. It’s dire. But there is also a silver lining. The first time Trump was in office people flocked to progressive organizations and got involved in social justice efforts. I expect this to happen again.
Any final thoughts?
This is not a moment to shrink or back off. It’s a moment to grow and build power. We in the AAUP are ready to fight for what we need — fully funded higher education, an end to student debt, and respect for every worker on every campus. This is just one moment in a long struggle. The AAUP is here to remind people that higher ed is the bedrock of democracy.This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license.
Eleanor J. Bader is an award-winning journalist who writes about domestic social issues, movements for social change, books and art. In addition to Truthout, she writes for The Progressive, Lilith Magazine and blog, the LA Review of Books, Rain Taxi, The Indypendent and other online and print publications.
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