Dear colleague,
The first days of the Trump administration have been filled with a blizzard of attacks that directly impact us at Rutgers, the communities surrounding our campuses, and our whole society. As we wrote on Tuesday, by attacking on every issue all at once, they want to frighten you into silence and submission. Don’t let that happen!
Below are some of the issues we must respond to that have come to light in the past few days and some ways you can take action now to confront them. You can expect a lot more emails like this one from your union. The new administration’s goal is to divide us by attacking on many fronts at once—we want to make sure we are supporting our members’ determination to meet these multifaceted attacks as best we can.
Immigration Raid in Newark
Yesterday, federal immigration authorities carried out a blatantly illegal raid in Newark. As Newark Mayor Ras Baraka confirmed in a statement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained both undocumented residents and US citizens, without ever producing a warrant. “One of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” according to the statement.
The Trump administration is clearly intent on terrorizing whole communities to impose its cruel program. Our unions will not stand by in the face of this bigotry and hate. We state categorically that NO human being is illegal—and we will oppose the Trump administration’s inhumane policies, wherever the impact may fall, on our campuses or off them.
We urge all of you to read and distribute resources from Make the Road New Jersey and the Immigrant Defense Project, so our colleagues, students, and communities know their rights. Click here to download a half-sheet with Make the Road’s Know Your Rights information, and post it on your office door and bulletin boards. Email aaup@rutgersaaup.org if you want more information about supporting ongoing immigrant defense projects. We also urge you to contact your legislators to support bills that would protect immigrants and other vulnerable communities in our state—see the next item.
Ask Your Legislators to Support Protections for the Most Vulnerable
New Jersey legislators have introduced several bills responding to some of the most vicious Republican assaults from Washington by establishing state-level protections:
- Senate Bill 1628 (sponsored by Sens. Andrew Zwicker and Raj Mukherji) establishes critical protections related to gender-affirming health care, for those providing, receiving, or allowing children to receive it.
- Senate Bill 3672 (sponsored by Sens. Gordon Johnson and Brian Stack) would create procedures that bar state and local governments from aiding federal immigration enforcement.
Please take some time right now or next week to call the senators and assembly members who represent your district and ask them to support these bills. We will post about other bills we should support on our website.
You can find your legislators by clicking here, entering your street address and zip code, then scrolling down to the New Jersey section and finding your senator and two assembly members (if you live out of state, call Senate President Nicholas Scutari at 732-827-7480 and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin at 732-855-7441). Click here for a suggested script.
Threatened Cuts at the National Institutes of Health
Among its many assaults on higher education, Trump’s executive orders and directives have halted meetings, travel, communication and hiring at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is an existential threat to our university. Rutgers gets $290 million in NIH funding each year; losing these funds would slow life-saving biomedical research, damage essential education, and harm a powerhouse of our state economy.
This morning, Senior Vice President for Research Michael Zwick emailed research faculty to say that the freezes and threatened cuts came without any warning or direction. He urged faculty working on grant proposals to reach federal contacts about the impact of these actions. If any member gets information that is relevant to your colleagues—particularly about ways to protest this attack—email us at aaup@rutgersaaup.org so we can share it.
Why Did Rutgers Cancel an Event for Historically Black Colleges and Universities?
Inside Higher Ed reported today that the Rutgers University Center for Minority Serving Universities “canceled an upcoming virtual conference about registered apprenticeship programs as a result of President Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.”
In our email last Friday, we said this appeared to be “anticipatory obedience” by Rutgers. But a member wrote to say that the cancellation may be the result of a stop-work order issued by the Trump administration. If any of you know more details, please contact us at aaup@rutgersaaup.org. The cancellation of this event—one which benefits the very higher ed institutions most likely to come under attack from the administration’s witch-hunt against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies—is deeply troubling.
Last but Not Least: Get Involved with Your Union!
As we wrote on Tuesday, our unions have been able to achieve a great deal when we work together. We ask you to get involved with your union—and if you’re already involved, get more involved! If you aren’t sure how to plug in, click here and fill out this form—then share the link with a colleague so they can get involved, too.
In particular, we ask you to get involved with union committees that do the unglamorous work of organizing our actions on various issues, from academic freedom to international student rights. This form has a question for you to tell us what area of work you’d like to be involved in.
One more way to support our unions’ legislative efforts: if you aren’t already making a voluntary contribution to the AFT Committee on Political Education (COPE), we ask you to sign up today. The COPE pays for expenses related to educating legislators and supporting officeholders and candidates who respect our members, support public higher education, and work toward our union’s goals. Click here to authorize a deduction for the COPE from each of your paychecks. The suggested contribution is $5 per paycheck, but any amount is helpful and should fit your own circumstances. Click here to learn more about our union’s COPE.
In solidarity,
Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union
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