Take action! Add your name to a petition calling on the Rutgers administration to protect our whole community in the face of the Trump administration’s assault.
Dear colleague,
We don’t need to tell you the damage that the Trump administration is doing to higher education and our whole society. Their funding freezes, mass firings, disruptions of life-saving research, assaults on the First Amendment, and cruel war on “wokeness” have to be confronted by our power as union members and as educators and researchers united by our academic mission.
We need the Rutgers administration to show the same resolve and determination that our members have in organizing against the research cuts, anti-immigrant measures, and attack on DEI. They must advocate uncompromisingly for the whole Rutgers community, especially those most vulnerable to persecution and job cuts—in defiance of the Trump administration, if necessary.
Please add your name to a union petition (see the text below) that calls on the Rutgers administration to protect the jobs and livelihoods of the people who make our university work.
This isn’t just an email campaign that’s over with the click of a button. Members will be taking the petition around to colleagues—to learn more about the issues you face, to open up discussions about what we can do to resist, and to build toward collective action later in the spring. If you want to get involved in this campaign, be sure to answer the questions about outreach and taking action.
You can also click here to download an 8.5×11 flyer with the petition text and room to sign on. Print them out and talk to your colleagues now—then contact aaup@rutgersaaup.org if you need to get filled-out forms back to us.
We’ve spent the last month and a half building resistance to the Trump assault on many different fronts all at once. We want this petition campaign to bring together all the issues we face—and bring together our union to fight back!
In solidarity,
Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ
To the Rutgers Administration: Stop the Cuts and Save R Community!
Click here to add your name to this union petition!
The Trump administration’s abrupt and unaccountable funding freezes, policy changes, and disruptions of life-saving research represent a profound threat to our university and all of higher education. In this moment, our university’s greatest resource is its people; it is a resource that must be preserved to confront the challenges we face today.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, recommit to our university’s core values of teaching, research, and service for the common good, and we call on university leadership, in cooperation with our unions, to do the same by:
- Advocating uncompromisingly for the whole Rutgers community—in defiance of the Trump administration’s unlawful and inhumane behavior, if necessary.
- Protecting the jobs and livelihoods of the people who make this university work. No layoffs or other reckless cuts.
- Refusing to cooperate in any way with the relentlessly racist, transphobic, sexist, and anti-immigrant attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, which threaten to roll back over half a century of progress against discrimination and unequal treatment.
- Taking all actions necessary to protect international scientists, scholars, and students, who face the loss of their visas if their employment status changes.
- Repairing significant damage to core programs caused by austerity policies: halt non-reappointments of non-tenure track faculty members and lecturers, rehire lecturers laid off since 2023, restore lower class caps, and rescind class and section cancellations.
- Reversing austerity policies and committing to full accountability, transparency, and engagement with all stakeholders affected by university budgetary policies.
- Working with our unions to make sure New Jersey lawmakers understand the urgency of our funding needs in the coming months and continue to support Rutgers as we confront the threats from Washington.