IU Coalition to Join National Day of Action for Higher Education with People’s Involvement Fair, Rally

Written from press release

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — April 14, 2025 — Faculty, staff, students, and academic workers at Indiana University Bloomington will join campuses across the country on Thursday, April 17, for the National Day of Action for Higher Education, as part of a movement led by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

The day’s events will include a “People’s Involvement Fair” from noon to 4:45 p.m. at Franklin Hall’s Media Commons, followed by a 5 p.m. rally in Dunn Meadow. Organizers have also scheduled a press conference from noon to 12:30 p.m. to outline the coalition’s demands and vision.

The IU coalition’s actions are centered around the “People’s 2030 Project,” which lays out an alternative strategic plan for the university grounded in academic freedom, constitutional rights, shared governance, equity, and the public mission of higher education.

The coalition has issued a list of demands, including:

• Public acknowledgment of federal efforts to dismantle higher education;
• A refusal to comply with authoritarian demands from donors or political officials;
• Legal protections for international students and scholars facing visa revocations or threats;
• Due process for irregularly terminated professor XiaoFeng Wang;
• Respect and fair treatment for all university labor—staff, students, and faculty;
• A recommitment to teaching and research that serves the public good and upholds academic independence.

Organizers say the rally is a response to escalating concerns on campus, including recent federal actions against international students, which have led to visa cancellations, and broader efforts to curtail academic freedom nationwide.

“The IU people doing the daily labor of learning, educating, researching, debating, and holding together our departments, dorms, and databases feel firsthand the injuries inflicted by the attacks on higher education. We work to make higher education into the wellspring of our democracy—whether as a scholarly forum where people assemble to speak truth to power or as labs and classrooms where young people learn to reason publicly and scientifically. Under today’s assault, not only do our communities suffer as real individuals face censorship, deportation, discrimination, and the disruption of our life work, but democracy itself falters as the communities that the university serves lose their voice—and the capacity of all of us, educated or uneducated, for reflection and civil courage yields to arbitrary power.,” the coalition stated in a release.

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