Academics & Others Standing up for Democracy & Education

I have an op-ed in the Philly Inquirer today (gift link). It came out of my work on/with WeAreHigherEd.Org

All of us who care about democracy need to decide how we’ll respond as we see our institutions, our work, and our communities being attacked.

Many of us in academia are standing up for our values and our students, and we need to continue (probably even ramp it up, honestly).

My op-ed is part of a series of 5-6 articles (there’s one I thought would be there that I don’t see) by Philly-area professors about what’s happening in higher ed (what the Trump admin’s attacks are doing, to be specific) and how we are responding, from different disciplines & types of institutions.

For me the main point of writing this was 1) to let people know we ARE fighting back and it’s not hopeless (even though there are real, terrible losses) and 2) get people connected to ways to fight back/groups to join.

For academics, that might be AAUP, Stand Together for Higher Ed, Stand Up for Science, a group you organize on your campus, another academic union, your faculty senate, your professional association.

For everyone including academics, it might mean finding a local group to join working on other axes of fascism-fighting – defending immigrants, or trans people, or rainbow crosswalks. And/or preparing yourself so you know what you can do if you see ICE harassing/arresting people.