Dear Colleagues,
The Coalition for Action in Higher Education (CAHE) has declared the second Day of Action for Higher Education. On April 17, 2025, campus workers nationwide will renew a vision of higher education as an autonomous public good and university workers as its most important resource. Join colleagues at campuses across the country to say no to authoritarian attacks on Higher Education and yes to Free Higher Education Now!
The UCSB Faculty Association has rented the State Street Room from 9 Am to 6 PM to allow faculty to watch and discuss together any of the fourteen virtual round tables focusing on the most urgent issues confronting the future of higher education in this country.
Please join us for one or more segments of this one-day event. In particular, we look forward to seeing you at 10 am PT for “Who Rules the University (& How to Fight Back)?” organized by our own Constance Penley and featuring our UCSB emeritus colleague Chris Newfield. The final virtual event of the day will be the Teach-In, which will be followed by an in-person discussion of how faculty at UCSB can mount an effective resistance to the Trump administration’s catastrophic war on higher education.
Please see below the list of events. No need to register for any of them if you choose to watch them with us (but you also have the option of registering and watching them on your own).
Feel free to pass this flyer on to friends who might be interested in registering for some of the events. Hope to see many of you this Thursday.
Sincerely,
The SBFA Board
April 17th The Day of Action
DISPLACEMENT: FROM PALESTINE TO MEXICO: THURS. APRIL 17
7:00 AM
The Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association Presents the Opening Session of the CAHE Day of Action Six panelists will explore how we in higher ed understand the massive racist displacements of “surplus populations” caused by the wars, climate disasters and economic dislocations of a capitalist world-system in turmoil. Register here.
College For All
8:00 AM
A political education and collective visioning session from the Debt Collective. We’re not just fighting to cancel student debt. We’re fighting for higher education as a universal, reparative public good. Register here.
The Antidote to Repression is Information
8:00 AM
Join the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom for a session on mapping the landscape of resources and allies in the fight against the sweeping repression that began years ago and has metastasized at an alarming rate at colleges and universities nationwide. Register here.
Why Sanctuary Campuses Now?
09:00 AM
In this workshop, core organizers of the Sanctuary Campus Network (SCN) will focus on the why and how of sanctuary campuses in this political moment. Register here.
Who Rules the Academy (and How To Fight Back)?
10:00 AM
Today, higher education in the U.S. is subject to an unprecedented wave of attacks from external as well as internal sources. This panel will identify several of those sources and suggest ways to combat them. Register here.
Workshop: Doing University Debt Reveals
10:00 AM
Presenters: Sofya Aptekar, Rich Levy, and Joanna Gonsalves. Debt increasingly rules our colleges and universities. In this workshop, members of the Coalition Against Campus Debt and authors of the book Lend and Rule will share tools for revealing the debt on your campus, connecting institutional debt to student debt, and organizing against both. Register here.
Universities As Political Battlegrounds, A Call for Courage
11:00 AM
The threat to universities is escalating daily. Across the country, higher education is under siege by coordinated attacks designed to silence dissent, restrict academic freedom, and dismantle spaces of critical thinking and resistance. Register here.
The Planned Scarcity of Public Student Housing at West Chester University and the Transformative Organizing to Decommodify It
11:00 AM
In this workshop, Backer will narrate the story of researching university bonds amidst a student housing crisis, specifically unearthing certain histories of neoliberal policies pointing to administrators’ manufacturing a crisis in public student housing. Link to join the Teams meeting here.
Immigrants Rights Defense Workshop
12:00 PM
Join us for a one-hour workshop on ICE policing tactics and strategies, and what to know about constitutional and other rights. Presenters will include attorneys and organizers who have decades long experience on these issues. Register here.
Fighting Attacks on Higher Education in Red States
01:00 PM
Karma R. Chavez, Executive Committee, AAUP Chapter of UT Austin will discuss local and statewide organizing in Texas from 2023-2025 as Republican legislators, with the support of compliant administrators, have sought to completely dismantle public higher education as we know it. Register here.
Militant Education In and Beyond the University
03:00 PM
Join Common Notions authors for a brief and lively conversation as they discuss some key strategic questions confronting us today on the terrain of public higher education and its horizons, essentially: what is to be defended and what is to be developed beyond it—and how? You can watch live on YouTube and register here.
National Teach In: Free Higher Ed Now
04:00 PM
This Teach In will feature leading voices in the fightback for a Free Higher Ed. It will provide analysis and ideas of key issues taken up by the Day of Action: attacks on campus workers; organizing every campus union; fighting for academic freedom and free speech; building power against University governing boards and trustees; speaking out for Palestine; education and debt; higher ed and racial justice. Register here.