The Thursday, April 17 demonstration was organized by the Advocacy Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at GVSU. Over 100 assemblies were held across the country by the Coalition for Action in Higher Education to protest the Trump administration’s funding cuts to education and research, as well as the revocation of international student visas.

AAUP is a national organization of faculty and academic professionals that seeks to foster dialogue, raise awareness of issues and elevate university faculty voices. The day of action, endorsed by national AAUP, was established last year.

At GVSU, student organizations including The Olive Tree, Students for a Democratic Society, Progressive Student Union and Voices for Justice took part in the demonstration. University community members came together for speeches and chants, citing what they felt was the need to defend higher education from federal attacks.

Organizers and attendees said they believe universities are a space for social change, advocating for freedom in education and social equity.

“This space, university spaces, are potentially spaces of revolutionary social change,” said Brian Deyo, associate professor of English and the University’s AAUP president. “We’re all here to defend this place (GVSU).”

Joel Wendland-Liu, a professor in the University’s Integrative Studies Program, spoke to attendees about why he took part in the event.

“I feel like we’re under attack,” Wendland-Liu stated. “This university (and) the university system in general across the country is under attack.”

Wendland-Liu expressed that despite federal policies targeting diversity, equity and inclusion in education, universities have a duty to protect all members of their community.

“Diversity is a fact (and) a reality,” Wendland-Liu said. “It’s not something we shove under the carpet and ignore. It is part of our lives. When a member of our community is under attack, we fight back.”

National AAUP, alongside local chapters, have sued the Trump administration over the dismantling of the Department of Education and research funding cuts. AAUP is also part of a lawsuit alleging the federal government is violating the First Amendment by singling out noncitizens for their pro-Palestine beliefs.

English major Jackson Hicks and education student Ian McGuckin spoke to demonstration attendees. Hicks read from his class project, which centered on the role of the humanities and what he believes to be a for-profit education system. McGuckin discussed his view of public education’s function in democratic societies. 

“They (educational institutions) create informed citizens (with) the ability to critically evaluate arguments and analyze evidence,” McGuckin said. “Most importantly, they equip us with tools to work against structures of hierarchy, inequality and domination.” 

McGuckin claimed he wanted to challenge a “narrative of fear” that he’s observed among people who disagree with President Donald Trump’s actions. According to McGuckin, students are the voice of the future and have the power to create large-scale social change.

“We are here because we care deeply about the future of our nation,” McGuckin said. “Inner conviction is a power no government or leader can take from us.”

Wendland-Liu also mentioned this, asserting his belief that Trump wants college students and faculty nationwide to be silent out of fear for their current or future professions and finances. 

“That’s not gonna save any one of us,” Wendland-Liu. “That’s not gonna save this university (or) any of the people in our community who are under attack for their existence and being as people.”

Founded in 1915, the AAUP is a national organization committed to promoting academic freedom, shared governance and the economic security of faculty and other academic professionals. 

Each year, AAUP releases a report on the economic status of the profession. The 2020-21 report found that “real wages for full-time faculty decreased 0.4 percent, the first decrease since the Great Recession, after adjusting for inflation.”

The virtual Jan. 18 event put this data into context at GVSU.

Speakers at the event included Faculty Salary Budget Committee (FSBC) chair Bob Hollister, AAUP member and math professor Matt Boelkins, AAUP President Joel Stillerman and Young Democratic Socialist of America (YDSA) club President Foster Thorburn.

Hollister presented data collected by the university on faculty compensation. The FSBC is a standing subcommittee of the University Academic Senate that “advocates for the faculty on all matters with significant budgetary implications with focused attention on new programs, salaries and healthcare benefits,” according to the FSBC website. 

Notably, Hollister pointed out that enrollment has declined over the past several years, putting pressure on the university’s general budget and making it difficult to increase faculty salaries.

“The budget is tight because enrollments are declining, and that makes it so it’s hard to increase salaries,” Hollister said during his presentation. 

As enrollment has declined, data shows that the number of faculty at GVSU has remained relatively high.

“I’m always asked, ‘If you got a choice, would you have more faculty?’ My response is always that you have to pay the people that are here properly,” Hollister said. “You can’t just have more faculty, build new buildings, pay people more unless we increase tuition and time, but that’s not gonna happen. It’s a balancing game, but hopefully, the balance will continue to put faculty and – for that matter – students and staff, first.”

According to Boelkins’ presentation during the event, the average salaries for full, associate and assistant professors have increased “at respective rates of 19.7%, 23.1% and 35.1%” in the past 11 years. Additionally, faculty salaries were frozen between fall 2019 and fall 2021.

Boelkins compared this with salaries of the highest-paid university administrators, including the President, Provost, Vice Presidents and Deans, which increased at an average of 44% in the last 11 years. 

Boelkins acknowledged that while faculty makes up a much larger population of GVSU employees than administrators, he’s concerned that administrative salaries have increased at a higher rate than faculty salaries, on average, over the past several years.

GVSU’s AAUP chapter was founded in 2020 in response to increased demands placed on faculty during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stillerman said. Since then, they have advocated for greater faculty voice and oversight and strategic planning, college reorganizations, Title IX processes, campus public health measures related to COVID and faculty salaries and workload.

“I and my colleagues feel that it’s been a very hard few years for faculty and for students,” Stillerman said. “While University officials have expressed gratitude verbally, we really don’t think like we’ve experienced that acknowledgment in terms of our salaries.”

During his portion of the presentation, Stillerman shared concerns regarding faculty morale, and how this could impact students as well.

“Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions,” Stillerman said. 

Stillerman said both students and faculty share an interest in high-quality education. In the past, AAUP has partnered with GVSU’s Student Senate in discussions regarding college affordability. During the Jan. 18 event, YDSA president Foster Thorburn spoke about student wages at GVSU.

The AAUP at GVSU released a statement on Nov. 28, 2022, in support of the Student Senate bill and YDSA petition for higher student wages. 

“How a university allocates its resources says what it values,” the AAUP said in the statement. “Especially given the University’s ongoing commitment to equity and inclusion, we agree that fair and equitable pay for student workers is an imperative.”

Thornburn echoed this, saying he hopes the university will show it prioritizes student workers by increasing wages. 

Stillerman drew a parallel between student and faculty compensation and the quality of education each respectively receives or is able to provide.

“If our students are food insecure or underpaid and have to work extra hours, then they’re not going to be in a very good situation to learn,” Stillerman said. “By the same token, if faculty are demoralized because we feel like our voice isn’t being heard and we haven’t gotten acknowledgment of the extra effort we’ve put in the last two and a half years then that as much as we want it to what we can for the students, inevitably, that’s when they erode our ability to be effective teachers and effective scholars.”

Stillerman said he looks forward to further partnerships within GVSU’s shared governance system as well as with student organizations. In the future, he hopes events like this one and the work of the AAUP will have a positive impact on the university.

“We support governance, and we want to partner with governance but we feel like we can’t we have a special role as kind of an independent advocacy group for faculty,” Stillerman said. “I hope that this and other events and initiatives persuade our leadership to rethink that and do better.”

Upperclassmen who started classes in the fall of 2018 have seen many changes in life at GVSU in the past few years, ones that freshmen in 2021 might take as given. These changes encompass how students on campus can vote, individual and cultural consciousness of systemic issues, and the influence that students and faculty have on the university. 

In the same vein, students and faculty have secured more platforms, to have a greater influence on the university’s policy decisions. Last year, faculty formed GVSU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Since then, they’ve organized multiple responses to strengthen COVID-19 guidelines for the sake of the GVSU community’s health and safety. 

The passing of Michigan Ballot Proposal 18-3 is an event that even some upperclassmen might have missed out on. In 2018, Michigan residents voted to approve the proposal, and the changes were just recently instituted in the 2020 election. Voters can now request an absentee ballot without having to provide a reason, making it easier for GVSU students who don’t live near campus to make their voices heard in national and statewide elections. This had a big impact on the 2020 election, and if the wave of voter restriction laws doesn’t undo the proposal, it will have a lasting impact on the campus population. 

But these positive steps have been taken by students and faculty, and the university administration itself has had some trouble moving towards a more inclusive, engaged culture. For example; professors took the initiative to request a vaccine mandate, but GVSU decided to not follow the recommendation that faculty issued by a majority in the University Academic Senate, and set the deadline for the mandate over a month after the Pfizer vaccine was approved by the FDA. 

Raising a counterpoint to GVSU’s recent progress, or recent attempts at progress, are the 4th and 5th Climate Surveys from 2015 and 2019, both of which indicated that a significant amount of respondents experienced a negative climate. In response to 2015’s survey, and anticipating the results of the 2019 survey, President Mantella promised to take action. 

However, due to concerns regarding questions about sexual orientation in the 2019 survey, data from the survey is not publicly available. Sometime in fall 2021 and winter 2022, the university is carrying out a revised, sixth iteration of the survey, alongside focus groups with the LGBTQ+ community. The task force also recommended instituting other focus groups around different areas of discomfort. This is a somewhat notable response, given that Climate Surveys at GVSU typically happen every 5-6 years. 

Incoming freshmen are entering a different campus than the one that juniors and seniors entered a few years ago. But GVSU doesn’t have a “new normal”, nor can we expect one right around the corner. GVSU has been and will be, constantly changing. There are still glaring problems that new students, alongside faculty and the administration, will be responsible for solving.