AFT Higher Education

🎉HIGHER EDUCATION: Saving Lives. Building Futures. Powering the Economy.

✅ Quality healthcare ✅ Safeguards for AI ✅ Moves toward free developmental education Congratulations Cook County College Teachers Union on your tentative agreement!

At @aft.org 2026 Convention, our higher ed delegates got to learn from Laurie and her colleagues how our members can help students become civic actors and use their democratic voice. A great lesson for all our locals!

Our AFT Michigan members are getting out the vote and putting education on the ballot!

From faculty, staff and graduate workers, campus layoffs threaten livelihoods, student support, and the future of higher ed. Pillar IV of the @afthighered.bsky.social @aaup.org higher ed campaign is focuses on the fight for higher ed workers and students. 🔗 www.insidehighered.com/news/busines...

Huge win for U Penn's students and faculty and for higher education as a whole!

View our AI resources here www.aft.org/highered/our...

Our vote is our voice - and thanks to Montclair State University Federation of Adjunct Faculty member Laurie LeFever, we’ll have 100 more voters making their voices heard this election. Make sure you’re registered & make a plan to vote! #AFTvotes @aftnewjersey.bsky.social @rweingarten.bsky.social

AI is changing the way we teach and the way students learn. View the AFT Higher Ed AI principles here www.aft.org/sites/defaul...

View the AFT Higher Education AI toolkit for resources for your affiliate. www.aft.org/sites/defaul...

Explore the AFT’s higher education immigration resources. www.aft.org/our-communit...

Stand with Cook County College Teachers Union and CCCLOC in calling for a fair contract. Please support the people who serve the students and the City Colleges the City of Chicago. actionnetwork.org/letters/sett...

A Blueprint for Strengthening and Transforming Higher Education Pillar IV: Respecting and Empowering Faculty, Staff and Student Workers @aft.org @aaup.org

A Blueprint for Strengthening and Transforming Higher Education Pillar III: Strengthening Our Communities @aft.org @aaup.org

A Blueprint for Strengthening and Transforming Higher Education: Pillar II- Affordability, Accessibility and Completion

NEW: The AFT is joining a civil rights coalition to file a federal lawsuit, challenging the Trump administration's threatened use of ICE and federal law enforcement at polling locations 👇

THIS IS HOW WE WIN

GET TRAINED. GET READY. GET IN THE FIGHT. @aft.org

WHAT DEMOCRACY DEFENDERS DO @aft.org

BECOME A DEMOCRACY DEFENDER! actionnetwork.org/forms/democr...

A Blueprint for Strengthening and Transforming Higher Education: Pillar I: Students’ Right to Learn. Students have a fundamental right to learn in environments that are open, inclusive and free from political interference. @aft.org

Remembering 9/11 May their memories-those that died that day, those who died trying to save them and those who died in the aftermath because of working on the pile, or in the war that followed-be a blessing Grateful for all the helpers that day

You can view the resources here: www.aft.org/featured-res.... @aft.org

Where we spend our money reflects what we stand for. This back-to-school season, let’s put our dollars behind local businesses that support workers, families and their communities—not Target. www.shopsmart.aft.org

CTE is opening doors for students. 🙌 At RioTECH, students earn industry certifications, gain college credit, and apply math through real-world projects that prepare them for today's workforce. See how hands-on learning is making a difference! @aft.org @sharemylesson.bsky.social

📚 How can educators help students understand democracy & strengthen it? Join @rweingarten.bsky.social & author @skyeperryman.bsky.social for a conversation on civic learning, critical thinking, & public service. 🏫 https://sharemylesson.com/webinars/aft-book-club-conversation-skye-perryman @aft.org

New Common App data show a 10% decline in the number of international student applications for this fall, but keep in mind that enrollment may not quite track applications. Still, another warning sign for higher ed.

Faculty deserve an administration that bargains seriously, respects their union, and invests in the people who make Ohio University work. Share to show your support for United Academics of Ohio University as they fight for a stronger OU for all!

@aaup.org and AFT Higher Ed oppose Trump’s Compact 2.0!

New on Academe Blog: academeblog.org/2026/08/19/2...

Go to AFT Votes to sign up and help elect candidates who share our commitment to making college debt-free and ensuring that intellectual freedom and freedom of speech are fully protected for faculty, staff, and students. www.aftvotes.org

Read more about how the AFT & @aaup.org are fighting to strengthen & transform higher education here. #HigherEdBenefitsEveryone

"Higher education is not a luxury...It expands opportunity. It advances scientific discovery. It educates the people who build our economy. It prepares citizens to govern themselves. And it creates knowledge that no market can produce on its own." - @proftwolf.bsky.social @aaup.org

No student should have to take on crushing debt to achieve their degree. Join @emergencycampaign.bsky.social and AFT Higher Ed members to Raise Hell for Pell on 9/1! Take action and use your voice to protect Pell Grants! emergency-campaign-to-support-higher-education.solidarity.tech/september-vi...

No student should have to take on crushing debt to achieve their degree. Join @emergencycampaign.bsky.social and AFT Higher Ed members to Raise Hell for Pell on 9/1! Take action and use your voice to protect Pell Grants! emergency-campaign-to-support-higher-education.solidarity.tech/september-vi...

AFT and AAUP have developed a national policy response to empower academic workers, ensure students’ right to learn, and strengthen our communities. Join us in this fight! Read our Blueprint for more info: www.aft.org/sites/defaul...

The 2026 @aaup.org Faculty in the South Survey is live. If you are faculty in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas please take a second to fill it out: forms.gle/iLheVskd4wcA...

We just launched our Shop Smart, Not Target campaign to urge our members and their families to spend our money reflects what we stand for. This back-to-school season, let’s put our dollars behind local businesses that support workers, families and their communities. www.aft.org/press-releas...

NEW: As teachers and families head back to school, AFT is urging people to shop at retailers other than Target for school supplies. Target refused to condemn unlawful ICE activity and failed to respond to good faith outreach efforts. Find local stores that respect labor rights at ShopSmart.AFT.org.

AFT-Wisconsin President and UWGB faculty member Jon Shelton is right. When academic workers are disempowered and denied basic workplace democracy, they can and will build power through politics. Elections matter! On Wisconsin! @aft.org www.jsonline.com/story/opinio...

By supporting candidates who will fight for making college more affordable, rebuilding public investment and defending academic freedom, we can ensure that higher ed truly serves the public. Read more on what @aaup.org President Wolfson has to say: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Secretary McMahon claims that she wants to bring down the cost of a college. But by deprofessionalizing degrees, she is dismantling pathways to a better life and making college MORE expensive . @nationalnurses.bsky.social @afscme.bsky.social @aflcio.org spectrumlocalnews.com/us/snplus/ed...

AFT is challenging Dept of Ed's RISE rule—which sets limits on loans students can borrow for grad school in critical & understaffed professions. @rweingarten.bsky.social: “By ‘de-professionalizing’ [these] careers, the Trump admin is eviscerating education access for poor & working-class students.”

IN SOLIDARITY: @aft.org Executive VP Evelyn DeJesus and AFTNJ President Jennifer S. Higgins speak to Union of Rutgers Administrators members and their supporters during a contract negotiations rally Aug. 12 at the Rutgers Labor Education Center in New Brunswick.

Improving "lives of patients, students, neighbors & families;" #union activists secured state resources to shore up research at CT’s flagship public university & medical academic center: aftct.org/2026/07/08/d... #DefendHigherEd @aft.org @afthighered.bsky.social @afthealthcare.bsky.social @aaup.org

AFT Higher Ed and K-12 members came together in New Brunswick, NJ to prepare for protecting our students, coworkers and communities facing increased immigration enforcement. Our unions and our members play a crucial role in keeping our students and our campuses safe and welcoming to all!

Way to go, Maryland Community Colleges! We are so proud of our members at United Academics of Maryland Community Colleges, Montgomery College, and all of our higher ed workers in the state! @aft.org @afthighered.bsky.social @uamdcc.bsky.social mocoshow.com/2026/08/11/m...

Every eligible voter should be able to cast a ballot & have it counted. But across the US, voters are facing confusion, intimidation, disinformation, registration problems & other attacks on their freedom to vote. Join our Democracy Defenders program here: aftvotes.org/democracy-de... #AFTvotes

We're suing to stop the admin. from de-professionalizing nursing, architecture, social work, teaching and other careers. Trump's tax bill for the rich eviscerated education access for poor and working-class students who deserve the opportunity to pursue their dreams, too. www.aft.org/press-releas...