A New Deal for Higher Ed

With the new administration and Congress come new opportunities to ensure significant, sustainable public investment in higher education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the long-standing crisis in public higher education. Declining state support, the erosion of tenure and shared governance, the increased use of contingent appointments, and the loss of the faculty voice on campus are threatening the core mission of higher education in our society. Now is the time to stand up for a just, inclusive system of higher education—one that can help transform our society.

That’s why the AAUP is joining with the American Federation of Teachers and other allies to push for a new deal for higher education.

Our ambitious agenda centers on four main values:

• building prosperity from the bottom up;
• advancing social, racial, and economic justice;
• strengthening democracy and civil society; and
• fostering knowledge and innovation.

The New Deal for Higher Education platform will seek to recenter our public colleges and universities as a common good. In addition to addressing tuition costs, institutional funding, and student debt relief, we will pursue reforms related to racial injustice and inequities, labor practices, academic freedom and governance, federal research funding, technical and vocational education, and a host of other challenges that have diminished our national capacity to educate our communities.

Learn more on the campaign website.