Takeaway: If you want to join your colleagues in organizing a response to Trump’s devastating research and funding cuts, fill out this form and tell us if you can attend a strategy session, participate in a national day of action, and more.
Dear colleague,
After just three weeks in power, the Trump administration has disrupted critical biomedical and scientific research on cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s and jeopardized the future of higher education. Though some of the administration’s actions have been challenged and blocked in court, the threats we face remain grave; Trump officials have suggested that they will defy the courts.
The outcry we’ve heard from you at Rutgers is being heard around the country. We in higher ed know that these inhumane cuts will literally kill.
Higher ed labor is coming together nationally around plans for a national day of campus actions set for Wednesday, February 19 and an action in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, February 25. We want to bring together anyone at Rutgers who wants to strategize about what we can do to mobilize on our campuses at a meeting on Thursday, February 13, at 12 p.m.
To attend or get involved in organizing for any of these events, click here and fill out this form; we’ll be in touch with more details over the coming week.
As you have no doubt heard, the latest attack on higher education came in the form of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) announcement that funding for indirect costs on NIH grants would be restricted to 15 percent of the grant total—far below the 57 percent rate that the federal government approved for Rutgers. If this restriction stands, Rutgers would lose tens of millions of dollars.
The NIH payments for indirect costs of grants pay for building maintenance, utilities costs for electricity and Internet, department support staff, and library facilities across the university—not just in schools or departments receiving the grants. Make no mistake: this attack on NIH funding would affect everyone at Rutgers, no matter what field or department you work in.
This latest announcement at NIH is one among the Trump administration’s many planned attacks on higher education, ranging from medical research to health care access to academic freedom. We need the public to know that the attack on higher ed will be felt much more widely, in red and blue states alike. The NIH cuts, for example, will be especially disastrous for people across the United States who rely on university health systems; these institutions are primary health providers in most urban and rural communities.
New Jersey’s Attorney General joined 21 other state AGs in filing suit against the unlawful NIH funding cuts; the suit asks a federal judge for a temporary restraining order. The Rutgers administration has also promised to challenge these cuts. While this is good news, our faculty, grads, postdocs, and others need to organize now against Trump’s actions and the more generalized attack on higher ed. Please fill out this form to let us know which of the upcoming events and actions you can attend or help organize:
- Thursday, February 13, 12 p.m.: Strategy session to discuss the impact of research cuts at Rutgers and how we should respond.
- Thursday, February 13, 8 p.m: Fund, Don’t Freeze! national call sponsored by Higher Ed Labor United.
- Wednesday, February 19: National Day of Action on campuses throughout the country.
- Tuesday, February 25: National action in Washington, D.C., to show higher ed labor’s opposition to the Trump onslaught.
In solidarity,
Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ
Rutgers AAUP-AFT Facebook page: https://facebook.com/RUaaup/
Follow us on Twitter @ruaaup and Instagram @rutgersaaup
Freedom School YouTubeChannel: https://rutgersaaup.org/YouTube
Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rutgersptlfc
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @ruaaup_ptl
Visit our website: https://rutgers-ptlfc.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ website: https://aaupbhsnj.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RUaaupbhsnj