What We’re Fighting For

Rutgers Faculty Unions Stand Firm Against Threats to Higher Ed

The Rutgers faculty unions are in negotiations for a new contract, the first since our successful 2023 strike.

It’s happening with a very different context than our last negotiations, when we were part of a larger strike wave both in and outside higher ed.

Higher ed in 2026 faces both long-standing and newer challenges. Financialization of the sector and a damaging consumerist approach have driven administrations around the country to eliminate programs deemed unnecessary or unpopular, while growing administrative bloat has combined with inflation to prove many students out of higher ed completely.

Donald Trump’s disdain for universities has only deepened the crisis, as he attacks schools who do don comply with his ideological agenda. This affects what we say in (and out of) the class room, along with the kind of research done. Who gets to speak and what we can say goes to the heart of the mission — creating and disseminating knowledge.

In many ways, this was the main point of yesterday’s press event, which you can watch below. I spoke on academic freedom — my prepared remarks follow the videos.

Part 1

Part 2

Here are my remarks as prepared:

I am Hank Kalet, vice president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union. I’ve been teaching as an adjunct at Rutgers since 2013, and I am here to talk about academic freedom.

I have been a journalist and writer for most of my life. I teach journalism at the School of Communications and Information. Journalism’s aims are the pursuits of truth and knowledge, which requires us to be indepenendent of party or dogma.

These are the same goals we pursue in higher education. As faculty, we ask questions, find answers, build knowledge, and then disseminate what we learn to our students, and to the public. Like journalists, we need independence and must remain committed to finding the truth.

We are witnessing historic assaults on higher education on ideological grounds. Faculty and students who speak out about Palestine and Israel, about Lebanon, the U.S. war on Iran, or Trump’s war on immigrants, who defend racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, who support the LGBTQ+ commmunity are in the crosshairs, and universities who do not crackdown on faculty — such as those in Texas, Indiana, and Florida — face funding cuts and the elimination of research grants. And there has been broad assault on research into climate change, vaccines, and public health — all of which threaten higher education and the broader public, as Annika will discuss.

This is part of an effort to undermine higher education as a bastion of learning and growth.

Rutgers’ existing policy offers some protections, but it is vague. We are demanding an expanded definition of academic freedom that covers not only what we teach and research, but our ability to speak outside the classroom and in our political lives. And we are demanding that it be applied to all faculty ranks — including adjuncts, whose contract lacks an academic freedom provision. We also need stronger job protections, as Julie said, because academic freedom means little without real job security.

Our next contracts must protect the freedom and independence of faculty that are the hallmarks of a great liberal arts institution.

Thank you.