STHE Featured on Forbes.com
Michael Nietzel’s recent article, “A Grass-Roots Faculty Effort to Advance Higher Education Takes Shape,” highlights the work that so many of you are helping us build: a national, faculty-driven movement to defend higher education, academic freedom, and democracy.
As the article explains, Stand Together for Higher Ed grew out of a simple idea: faculty cannot face today’s political attacks on higher education alone. Over the past year, we have watched state legislatures and governing boards move to limit free inquiry, restrict teaching, and undermine institutional autonomy. When one campus is targeted, all of us feel the consequences. Our answer is to join forces—across institutions, states, and disciplines—so that faculty, staff, and allies can respond with strength and solidarity.
““We’ve built 20 teams so far, with many more to come this fall. But progress is slow. Fear and hesitation are real — even among tenured faculty. These are chilling times. Higher ed in the U.S. has been through dark times before – the McCarthy era, for example – but that pales in comparison to what’s happening now. It’s time to be brave. The stakes couldn’t be higher.””
Forbes notes that our strategy builds on the concept of Mutual Academic Defense Compacts (MADC): agreements that allow campuses to pledge support for each other when academic freedom or vulnerable communities come under threat. By linking these compacts into a broader national network, we are creating the foundation for sustained collaboration and rapid response.
Most importantly, this movement is designed from the ground up. While presidents, provosts, and trustees play important roles in higher education, STHE emphasizes faculty and staff leadership at the local level. Through campus-based Stand Together Teams, members are organizing to educate their colleagues, engage their communities, and build cross-campus alliances.
“We are a big tent movement. This isn’t an Ivy League fight or a lefty movement; the frontline is all of us–our community colleges and public universities, where staff and faculty across red, blue, and purple states have realized how high the stakes are.”
Being featured in Forbes is an exciting milestone, but this work is just beginning. We invite all faculty and staff who share our commitment to higher education as a public good to join us. Together, we can ensure that colleges and universities remain places where knowledge is advanced freely, justice is pursued openly, and democracy is strengthened.
