DEFEND THE
RIGHT TO LEARN
A united network of faculty, staff, and student worker unions and advocacy groups fighting for academic freedom and economic equity in the NYC Metro.
A united network of faculty, staff, and student worker unions and advocacy groups fighting for academic freedom and economic equity in the NYC Metro.
A New York Metro Coalition for Higher Ed Forum
Monday, November 16
What does worker power look like at New York’s colleges & universities? Join labor organizers from across the city, Anthony Perlstein from the Mayor’s Office of Worker Power, and Assemblymember Diana Moreno to discuss how labor can shape the future of Higher Education in NYC, the state, and across the country.
Join us to win a Higher Education that works for all!
May 1, 2026
Rally at The New School, gathering at Washington Square Park and march to Foley Square to defend higher ed jobs and build union power.
November 7, 2025
Protest outside Apollo Global Management. Reject the Compact and oligarchic influence.
October 28, 2025
Cross-institutional organizing meeting at the NYU Cantor Center to build power.
April 17, 2025
March from Washington Square Park and rally at Foley Square to defend academic freedom.
The NY Metro Coalition for Higher Ed comprises faculty, staff, and student worker unions and advocacy groups from across the city and state.
The NY Metro Coalition for Higher Ed is a group of faculty, staff, and student worker unions and advocacy groups committed to advancing the right to learn, teach, research, associate, assemble, and dissent. We champion and defend the rights to academic freedom and freedom of speech as the cornerstone of higher education, crucial to the role of education in a just, democratic society. We stand against threats to ourselves and our educational institutions, which undermine or punish us for political speech, discriminate against us or harm us based on our identities or citizenship status, diminish our scientific, social, humanistic, and artistic research, or attack our rights. We believe in the necessity for greater economic equity within and across our institutions, and uphold a vision of higher education in which the pursuit of learning does not incur crippling debt. We are an advocacy network that shares resources and support through events and other platforms. We aim to enact changes within our institutions and at local and state levels that enshrine our rights, and pressure our institutional leaders to defend the autonomy of higher education.
Our communities flourish when our universities thrive. We come together to build a future for higher education free from coercion, censorship, propaganda, transphobia, racism, and anti-immigrant hate. We are taking the fight to the State House, the White House, the boardroom, and the streets. We stand up for each other— because when we fight together, we win.
