Category: Events

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An important update on GET-UP’s union election and our demonstration on April 17—a part of the National Day of Action for Higher Ed involving more than 90 campuses across the U.S.:

As you know, a supermajority of graduate workers filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in October 2023, and they have waited half a year to vote because of Penn’s obstructionist tactics. In late March, the NLRB finally ruled that the election could go ahead and set a date: April 16-17. In an unprecedented show of support, over 240 faculty members signed a public statement of support for graduate unionization, and four campus labor organizations—GET-UP, AAUP-Penn, Penn Museum Workers United, and United RAs at Penn—announced a joint rally on April 17.

In a twist of events, the election date was changed with less than a week’s notice. On April 10, the NLRB ruled that a group of graduate student workers whom Penn had tried to exclude could vote in their election—a victory for the grad union. It then postponed the election by two weeks to provide the administration time to produce a list of eligible workers. In response, on April 10, Penn asked the NLRB to delay the election until the fall—a shameless attempt to deny workers their legal right to vote. The NLRB rightly rejected Penn’s proposal and is trying to reschedule the election for May 1–2 (dates to be confirmed).

Penn’s eleventh-hour demand to postpone the election indicates that the administration’s anti-union campaign is not over: the University intends to fight its own research and teaching assistants straight through the election, and likely beyond.

In the face of Penn’s anti-union campaign, our April 17 demonstration for grad workers’ right to vote for their union is more important than ever. As we approach the end of an academic year during which we have also faced serious attacks on freedom of assembly, academic freedom, and shared governance, GET-UP members’ vote for a collective voice at Penn also represents a vital step toward democratizing our institution. The demonstration will go ahead as planned on April 17 at 1pm at the Button. The message of the day remains: Unions belong at Penn. Democracy belongs at Penn. We stand with grad workers as they prepare to win their union.

So please come on April 17 at 1pm to the Button to show your support, and to stand up and be counted on this National Day of Action. Your participation is important as a show of unity across job categories in support of the rights of grad workers—and as an expression of broad-based support for the principle of democracy at our institution and in our society.

By Posted on Posted in Events, News

Members of many higher ed unions, AAUP chapters including AAUP-Penn, Higher Ed Labor United, and student organizations are coming together across the country to plan a national day of action for higher education on April 17, 2024. The aim is not just to beat back the current attacks on academic freedom, DEI bans, and devastating budget cuts to public institutions in many states. We will mobilize around a unifying national message that links our local struggles with a set of positive demands we can fight for together, including publicly funded higher ed for all, freedom to learn, job security and fair pay, and democratic governance of our institutions. This statement outlines the future we stand for. 

The centerpiece of the day will be simultaneous actions on every campus that can organize one: a teach-in, demonstration, tabling event, or whatever would be useful and feasible for you, oriented to the key issues that you are already organizing around. There will also be a national event focused on the function of higher education for democracy. If you are interested in getting involved:

April 17 Day of Action Events: How to Participate and Next Steps
1) Make a plan with your union for a campus/local action on April 17
2) Have your union endorse the statement The Future We Stand For (members: AAUP-Penn has already endorsed)
3) Important: Register your union’s participation and endorsement by filling out this form!

National Teach-In
In addition to the campus actions that will be the main focus of the day, there will be a live-streamed National Teach-in on the function of higher education for democracy at 5pm EST on April 17 (click here to register). Many campuses are organizing watch parties with live discussion, either in addition to a local action or as their event.

Upcoming Planning Meeting on 3/29
If you’re looking to get involved or if you have questions, join the next open meeting on Friday, March 29 at 1pm EST via Zoom (click here to join). Learn about the National Day of Action, discuss what you’re experiencing on your campus, and think about the kind of action you could organize on April 17.

Save the date: follow-up meetings
We hope this first National Day of Action will be a springboard for ongoing mobilization together! So after April 17, join us for two follow-up meetings to plan next steps:

Fri, April 26, 2-3pm EST (click here to join)
Mon, May 6, 1-2pm EST (click here to join)

For further information, visit dayofactionforhighered.org.

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As the historic unionization wave continues on our campus, especially as Penn graduate student workers in GET-UP gear up to vote for their union this spring after a highly successful organizing campaign, now is a crucial time for faculty as well as Penn employees across job categories to educate ourselves and each other on the right to organize.

AAUP–Penn is honored to host a lecture and conversation on February 27th with an expert on the subject, Janice R. Bellace, Samuel Blank Professor Emerita of Legal Studies in the Wharton School and past Chair of the International Labor Organization’s Committee of Experts, who will discuss freedom of association and unionization as human rights. Join us on 2/27 at 4pm EST on zoom to hear Janice R. Bellace speak on “Graduate Student Workers’ Human Right to Organize.”

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On January 22, 2024, Penn faculty, students, graduate workers, staff, and allies from across campus, across local higher ed unions, and across Philly stood out in the cold together to rally for the basic principles that make a university a university: academic freedom, shared institutional governance that represents us all, open expression, and equity and diversity, all of which enable higher education to serve the purpose of generating new knowledge for the public good. “Universities don’t exist to serve private interests,” as AAUP–Penn President Amy Offner said in her opening remarks; “They are not tools for the business interests or political agendas of donors and trustees.’”

The lineup of speakers—including tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty from many departments and schools across Penn from Arts & Sciences to SP2 and from Wharton to Veterinary Medicine, as well as undergraduate students, medical students, grad workers in GET-UP, and colleagues and allies from other universities—spoke out powerfully in support of academic freedom and shared governance, open expression, and diversity and equity, all of which are under assault across the U.S. and at our own university.

Without academic freedom, higher education is impossible. This right—a right defined by the American Association of University Professors from its founding in 1915 and won through past mobilizations by faculty across higher education—has long been enshrined in Penn’s policies, but it is not self-enforcing. That is why so many members of the Penn community have committed to standing together in solidarity to insist that the freedom to teach is essential to the freedom to learn, and to claim academic freedom and practice it as a collective right.

Yesterday’s public demonstration marked the start of a campaign by faculty across the University of Pennsylvania not just to beat back the current assault by billionaire CEOs, trustees, and politicians, but to fight for and win positive institutional changes that will strengthen academic freedom and the forms of job security meant to protect it and that will democratize our university’s governing structures in order to make the freedom to teach and learn a reality for all of us who study and teach at Penn.

You can read press coverage from the DP here and from the Philadelphia Inquirer here.

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AAUP–Penn is organizing a public demonstration on Monday, January 22 at 2pm in support of freedom to learn, teach, and study; shared institutional governance; and diversity and racial justice. We are calling on faculty, staff, students, workers, and allies from across Penn, across institutions, and across Philly to stand together to defend and strengthen these principles.

This is a crucial time to push back against billionaires and politicians who are threatening all of us who work and study at Penn. You have undoubtedly seen that Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management and co-chair of the Wharton Board of Governors, has circulated a memo suggesting that unelected Penn trustees assume powers to unilaterally close departments, impose McCarthyite speech codes clearly aimed at suppressing protest, and change hiring and admissions policies to turn back the clock on gains in diversity and racial justice. These are serious threats to our institution’s educational and research mission and to the work that all of us do.

Now is not a moment to stand on the sidelines. Your participation is vital in demonstrating that the majority of Penn faculty, students, and staff believe in academic freedom, shared governance, open expression, and diversity. So come out to the button (in front of Van Pelt) on Jan. 22 at 2pm to say loud and clear that we will not let CEOs and politicians destroy these principles, and we intend to win positive institutional changes strengthening them.



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Penn colleagues and students, please mark your calendars for a January 19 Open Forum on Academic Freedom and Shared Governance, featuring remarks from invited guest speakers Joan Wallach Scott and Hank Reichman—former chairs of AAUP’s national Committee A on Academic Freedom. This will be an opportunity to learn more about academic freedom and shared governance—principles that AAUP defined over a century ago and that are written into Penn’s Faculty Handbook—and to discuss together how we can strengthen them at Penn.

Join via zoom on 1/19 at 1pm; email for the meeting link if you haven’t received an invitation. Sign language interpretation will be available throughout the session.

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We invite all faculty to attend our third and final faculty conversation on unionization at Penn on Friday, October 20, at 12 noon on Zoom. This is a chance to learn about unionization and about how anti-union campaigns operate, and to discuss questions and concerns that faculty might have and/or to equip yourself to answer colleagues’ questions about GET-UP. 

Please register here for the meeting link or use the final QR code below. Hope to see you there!

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This Wednesday, October 4th, Penn graduate student workers in GET-UP will publicly announce that they are filing for an NLRB election to officially win their union, now that a majority have signed authorization cards. This exciting news comes close on the heels of an overwhelming 142-22 win by RAs United in their own union election.

GET-UP members will be calling on the Penn administration to remain neutral and to agree to a fair election process. They are counting on a strong show of support from faculty, staff, and students across Penn and allies in the Philly community to amplify that call. So, can you come out to rally with GET-UP on Wednesday at 12 noon at the Button in front of Van Pelt?

Hope to see you there!
AAUP–Penn Executive Committee

P.S. To discuss any questions you or your colleagues may have about grad unionization and about what a fair election would look like (as distinct from the anti-union campaigns Penn has been running against GET-UP, RAs United, and other recently organized unions), please join us for a faculty information session Tuesday at noon in Fisher-Bennett 135 or October 20th at noon on zoom (register via the QR code below for a meeting link).

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Our campus is in the midst of an extraordinary wave of organizing, with RA’s United holding an election next week and GET-UP preparing to file the following week. Since Penn’s central administration has launched anti-union campaigns against student workers (crafted by the law firm Cozen O’Connor) and is attempting to enlist faculty in their anti-union messaging, this is an important time for faculty to educate ourselves and each other about unionization.

To that end, AAUP–Penn is holding a series of fall conversations with faculty to offer some background on the nature of unions in higher ed and on the process of unionization, address any questions or concerns you may have (or that you’ve heard expressed by colleagues), and clarify some misleading information coming from the administration. The next two sessions will take place on October 3 at noon in Fisher-Bennett 135 and on October 20 at noon on zoom (register via the QR code on the flyer below for the meeting link). Please come to one and bring a colleague!

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Penn Museum Workers United need your support in their contract negotiations, so they are holding a Rally for Fair Pay on Thursday, June 8th starting at 5:30pm outside the main entrance to the Penn Museum. All are welcome!

AAUP–Penn members as well as friends in other campus and local unions are urged to attend and help send a clear message to Museum management and to Penn that the whole community is watching and it is time to negotiate a fair contract now. All of us who work at this University have an interest in seeing all Penn employees paid enough to live securely in Philly, and in seeing the Museum keep the talented staff whose work it relies on every day.

You can read AAUP–Penn’s letter of support for PMWU here, calling on President Magill, Director Chris Woods, and museum management to accept their reasonable wage proposals. Come show up for our museum worker colleagues and stand in solidarity with PMWU this Thursday afternoon!

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