Higher ed votes: A final push to the polls

A wide range of higher education advocates gathered Oct. 28 to make a final push to get out the vote. While they hailed from different unions and held various elected positions, with different degrees of progressive politics, they all agreed: Winning the presidential election is crucial for democracy, and for our colleges and universities.

It was the day after what AFT President Randi Weingarten called “the hate-fest” at Madison Square Garden, where speakers at a Trump rally displayed shocking levels of “hate, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, lies and deceit,” showing that the choice between the two major presidential tickets is clear. Weingarten pointed out that the connection between Donald Trump and fascism is significant. Trump and his supporters “will jail their enemies,” she said. “They will not respect [the outcome of] the next election.”

On a more immediate level, higher education and education writ large is threatened as well. “As part of seizing power, an autocrat in the White House would be threatened by educated people who can think critically and independently,” said Mia McIver, chair of Higher Education Labor United and president of the CFT’s University Council-AFT in California. “He would decimate our campuses and try to ensure that fewer and fewer people have access to higher education.”

A vision for higher education

The event, sponsored by HELU, hosted by the AFT, and co-sponsored by the American Association of University Professors, the Communication Workers of America and the United Auto Workers, served as inspiration for the final push to get out the vote—a theme participants returned to repeatedly—and an opportunity not only to condemn the Republican ticket, but to offer a vision of what is possible should Harris and Walz be elected.

“We stand for higher education as a public good,” said McIver. “We stand for more access to higher ed, not less. We stand for funding the open-enrollment institutions and the minority-serving institutions that are the foundation of our pluralistic, multiracial society. We stand for full-time, secure, in-sourced employment, with thriving wages.”

Unions create the climate for those possibilities. In New Jersey, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union strike created real change—and while the union did not simply wave “a magic wand,” as RAFU Vice President Amy Higer said, “having sympathetic elected officials in office, both nationally with the Biden administration and in the state of New Jersey,” made a huge difference. “We absolutely need to put good people in office and keep bad people out,” said Higer.

“We have to elect people that are working-class champions,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.

“Working-class warriors who aren’t afraid to demand that college be free for students and that workers who make universities run are provided wages and conditions that they can’t just live on, but they can thrive on.”

Margaret Cook, vice president of the CWA Public, Healthcare and Education Workers, drew a clear connection between unions and elections when she described how, as an administrative worker on college campuses, she and her union families fought to protect benefits and prevent outsourcing, win living wages, and defend the rights of workers. “Right-wing zealots and corporate interests have colluded to try and shut us up and keep us from organizing,” she said.

“They want to end the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, continuing the litany of harm right-wing extremists would bring. “They want to rescind Title IX protections for sexual assault victims and LGBTQ+ students. They want to end the Head Start program. They want to get rid of the entire Department of Education.”

Instead of watching these valuable institutions crumble, we should be expanding collective bargaining rights, expanding access to higher education and making college free, said Jayapal—as the College for All Act, which she and Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced, would do.

“Education is essential to our democracy,” said CWA President Claude Cummings. “It is a foundation from which we understand our history, the way the world functions, and how we can best use our own skills and talents to improve our lives and the lives of others.”

“As we enter the endgame of this election cycle, … little children just beginning their education adventure are counting on you,” said Cummings. “Working-class individuals and families are counting on you. Get every person you can to the polls.”

“I don’t know if we are in America 2024 or Germany 1933,” said Weingarten. “I don’t know, and neither do any of us. It really comes down to every vote matters.” If we care about democracy, she said, we must elect Harris and Walz. They will fight fascism, and they care about free speech, labor rights, decent jobs, decent wages, decent healthcare. They care about public education, “from Head Start to higher education.”

“Turning around this dystopian, hateful disgust that we have seen [from] Donald Trump—we’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Weingarten. “Right now, in this last week, getting out the vote [is] absolutely imperative.”

[Virginia Myers]