Last week, Columbia University expelled and fired Grant Miner, a student worker and president of Student Workers of Columbia, UAW Local 2710, one day before contract negotiations were due to start. This occurred only a few days after plainclothes ICE and DHS agents illegally abducted and detained pro-Palestine activist and former UAW member Mahmoud Khalil in Columbia University campus housing.
The events of last week are a clear escalation of the Trump Administration’s politically motivated attacks on our work, our research, and our community. Universities are being enlisted to do the dirty work of this administration by carrying out their own destruction under the threat of withheld funding for crucial research and scholarship.
Institutions like the University of Washington (UW) and Columbia cannot save themselves by trying to appease the Trump administration. Columbia’s violent repression of anti-genocide protestors not only did not prevent their targeting by the administration but undermined faith in the institution itself. Their collaborationist approach has led to a 400 million dollar hole in their budget and an even bigger target on their backs. Now, UW is among the institutions placed on Trump’s hitlist. While the resolution was imperfect, last year UW chose to buck the national trend by negotiating with, rather than attacking, the UW student encampment. This year, UW must again demonstrate its commitment to core values by protecting its students instead of exposing them, as Columbia has done. The University has a duty to resist coercion and stand up for its claimed values and for our community, especially our undocumented, non-citizen, and international scholars and workers.
Drawing on our commitment to protecting the constitutional rights of students, student workers, activists, international workers, and everyone involved in the struggle for justice, we unequivocally condemn the actions of Columbia University and the Trump administration. We reiterate that an injury to one is an injury to all, and we will continue to stand up and fight back alongside our union siblings and allies across the country.