Defense Comes Day Before Republican-led Congressional Committee’s Cynical Attack on Higher Ed Faculty, Funding & Ideology
New York, NY–Leaders of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) spoke out today to defend free expression and academic freedom on college campuses and oppose the MAGA Republican assault on American Universities. Top administrators from the City University of New York (CUNY), U.C. Berkeley, and Georgetown have been called to Washington to testify tomorrow, Tuesday, July 15, before the House Education and Workforce Committee.
PSC President James Davis leads Hands Off Higher Ed! Hands Off CUNY! Rally (Courtesy Paul Frangipane)
The hearing is the latest in a series that have purported to be about combating antisemitism. In reality, they are part of a broad, systematic attack on higher education that seeks to undermine freedom of speech, discipline and defund universities, reverse years of social progress, and suppress research and teaching that doesn’t comport with the MAGA agenda.
“This hearing is another cynical attempt to use real anxiety about rising antisemitism to ambush university leaders, smear faculty, slash funding, and delegitimize institutions that are essential for a working democracy,” said James Davis, President of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY, at a Hands Off Higher Ed! Hands Off CUNY! Speak Out at NYC Hall.
Davis was flanked by faculty and staff from his union and NYC elected officials: NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and State Senator Jabari Brisport, Assembly Members Harvey Epstein and Jessica González-Rojas, and NYC Council Member Lincoln Restler. They gathered a day ahead of the hearing to defend CUNY’s diverse academic community, which includes many Jewish students, faculty and staff, from the coming attacks.
“We are witnessing the Trump Administration’s appalling weaponization of antisemitism to attack one of New York’s pillars of public higher education,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “Trump’s attack is a deliberate attempt to subvert the independence of higher education, silence legitimate dissent, and undermine vital academic research. We must defend the basic foundations of a free, questioning, and democratic society.”
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander Speaks at Hands Off Higher Ed! Hands Off CUNY! Rally
CUNY is one of New York’s most powerful engines of opportunity. It drives the City’s economy and its workforce and should not be targeted by MAGA Republicans:
- CUNY employs 40,000 people
- Nearly 300,000 matriculating students attend CUNY
- Dozens of current elected officials got their start at CUNY.
- CUNY alumni earn $57 billion annually and pay $4.2 billion in state income taxes.
- CUNY leads the nation in helping low-income students achieve middle-class incomes.
- CUNY produces half of the city’s new nurses and a third of its new teachers annually.
“These hearings are nothing more than an attack on higher education cloaked under the guise of fighting antisemitism,” said Congressman Jerrold Nadler. “If Congressional Republicans were truly committed to combating antisemitism, they would stop covering up the antisemitism in their own party and demand President Trump stop employing antisemites in his Republican administration. Instead, Congressional Republicans stand behind known antisemites like Trump Defense Department Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson or the National Security Council’s Sebastian Gorka. If the goal of Congressional Republicans’ is not to score cheap political points but to highlight a commitment to combating antisemitism in higher education, they would not have supported the Trump Administration’s funding cut to the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights—the very office that investigates antisemitism on college campuses. These hearings are the next step in Congressional Republican and President Trump’s McCarthy-esque war on free speech, academic freedom, and institutions of higher education—all under the false guise of combating antisemitism. The American people will see through their empty rhetoric and will not be fooled by this nefarious, wasteful, and ridiculous charade.”
“CUNY is a beacon of opportunity and agency, transforming the lives of generations of New Yorkers,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “As faculty and staff work tirelessly to improve people’s lives, Trump and some of his congressional allies are doing the opposite. While antisemitism is real, they are not trying to address it. They are trying to weaponize investigations as an excuse to smear and defund public higher education. Let’s be clear: We must tackle legitimate issues of discrimination. But this modern-day McCarthyism is not just an illegal attack on our nation’s deeply held free speech and due process rights. It’s an attack on knowledge, straight out of the authoritarian playbook.”
“The continued weaponization of antisemitism, without a shred of real evidence, does absolutely nothing to combat real antisemitism that exists in our society.” said AAUP President Todd Wolfson. “The real purpose of these show trials is to undermine university autonomy so the federal government can control what faculty research, write, and teach and what students learn and say, while creating a climate of fear and repression on our great campuses. The goal is clear: the destruction of higher education as we know it, because it is an independent sector that they fear will challenge their radical right wing agenda.”
“NYSUT stands with CUNY’s faculty, staff, and students who believe in the transformative power of education and the rights of students to hear diverse perspectives.” said NYSUT President Melinda Person. “We reject any effort to intimidate universities into silence and fear, and we won’t let CUNY — or any institution of higher education — be used as a political stunt designed to divide our communities.”
Interim President Robert M. Groves of Georgetown University and Chancellor Rich Lyons of the University of California, Berkeley will testify alongside CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez at the hearing. Faculty leaders from Berkeley condemned the attacks on their universities.
“The Committee is once again using these hearings as a thinly-veiled platform to continue their political attack on higher education, libraries, and academic freedom. Academic freedom is a labor issue in our universities, especially for contingent faculty. Focusing on campus protests is a diversion from the actual threats to higher education coming from right-wing attacks and decades of disinvestment in teaching and learning,” said Katie Rodger, President of the University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT), representing over 6,800 teaching faculty and librarians working throughout the University of California system.
“Berkeley faculty resent the intimidation tactics being conducted by the Federal government against our University. Our University stands strongly against Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. The University of California, Berkeley is proud to be a force for social mobility, with more Pell grantees graduating from UC Berkeley than from the entire Ivy league system, with more Peace Corps volunteers than another other University, and a critical engine for the Bay Area and California economy,” said Paul Fine, Co-Chair, Berkeley Faculty Association.
The University of California, including Berkeley, contributes $82 billion per year to California’s economy and supports a half-million jobs. and UC-related spending generates nearly $12 billion annually in federal, state and local tax revenues.
It is not as if the CUNY administration has refused to take recommended steps to address concerns about antisemitism on campus. They responded to an independent report commissioned by Governor Kathy Hochul, entered into a voluntary agreement with the federal Department of Education regarding Title VI compliance, established a university-wide Center for Ethnic, Religious and Racial Understanding, and implemented a new system for reporting and tracking complaints of antisemitism and discrimination. Chancellor Matos Rodríguez has a responsibility to confront antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of hate. But CUNY has accepted the false premise that most campus activism in support of the Palestinian people is antisemitic, if not criminal.
“CUNY administrators have investigated faculty for the terms in which they discuss the war in Gaza in their classes, limited the time, place, and manner for exercising the right to free expression on campus, invited police violence against non-violent student protestors, and even fired faculty in apparent retribution for their political activism. It is still not enough to satisfy the new McCarthyites, whose committee demands the chancellor’s appearance. Universities must stand against fascism, not accommodate it,” said James Davis.
