Hundreds of demonstrators rallied at Foley Square to defend education to push back against attacks from the Trump administration. As part of the National Day of Action for Higher Ed, which took place across the country, the message of “Hands off Higher Education” was made clear.
The march began from Washington Square Park, where teachers, students, workers, advocacy groups, and regular people convened with signs and made their way down to Foley in front of the New York State Supreme Court Building, packing the streets with chants and slogans condemning the moves by Trump, which have infuriated many.
“We’re going to build a future for higher education that’s free from coercion, free from censorship, transphobia, racism, “ Zachary Samalin, NYU professor, told the crowd. “We say no to abducting and deporting students and faculty for their pro-Palestinian speech advocacy…no to discriminatory anti-DEI policy, known to the ban on trans people, known to Trump’s xenophobic immigration crackdown.”
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The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Higher Education Labor Union co-sponsored the day of action. Protests were held across the country on over 150 campuses. The march and rally in Manhattan on Thursday, organized by NYU and CUNY, was to serve as the largest single event of the day. Several AAUP chapters at colleges in the city and the tri-state area, as well as education unions and student groups, were also represented.
Speakers denounced the unlawful arrests and targeting of student protestors, cuts to funding for critical scientific and medical research, and critical humanities studies, discriminatory anti-DEI policies, and suppression of curriculum and free speech on campus.
Near the offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at Federal Plaza, speakers called out the abductions of international university student demonstrators in the free Palestine protests, including Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia, Rumeysa Ozturk from Tufts, among others.
Columbia was the first main target of the administration last month, at the threat of losing federal funds. The university has complied with many of the demands from Trump, to which there has been swift backlash.
Shana Redmond is a professor at Columbia and is a part of the coalition of educators that have fought back through showing solidarity with students, organizing “protective networks,” which include walking with students to and from class if someone, such as an ICE officer, attempts to abduct them.
“We’re working to protect our syllabi, our curriculum, and our classrooms. We are working in solidarity with students, both the graduate union workers as well as the undergraduates, who have every right to learn,” Redmond said.
“We have to do this work, and especially coming from a place like Columbia, which has made a series of horrible, cowardly decisions in the last year,” Redmond continued. “They do not represent us…we refuse to concede to the institution. We refuse to concede to Trump.”
Public Advocate Juumane Williams criticized Mayor Eric Adams and NY universities for caving to Trump’s threats.
“They don’t stop because you capitulate, they keep going. All the capitulation won’t save you,” Williams said. “In the Bronx, they are taking students, and our mayor is capitulating and allowing them to do it, and it is shameful. To see institutions of higher learning, who read history…stand back and try to capitulate is shameful.”
Amidst the crackdown from Trump on LGBTQ students, Williams emphasized the importance of unity.
“You don’t have to let go of your faith, but you have to move in love… what they try to do is pretend that your pain is linked to someone else’s gain,” Williams said.
Jonah Inserra, a member of the NYU Graduate Student Organizing Committee, called out NYU Langone Health after they had notably made decisions to comply with Trump’s executive orders denying trans identity or affirmative care. In February, the university hospital was sued for allegedly denying gender-affirming care to a youth under 19 who is trans, to comply with Trump’s order.
“The university administration under President Linda Mills, has opted to cower behind bureaucracy and platitudes while waiting for the other shoe to drop, knowing full well that when it does, it will drop, not on them, but on us,” Inserra said. He referred to Trump’s actions as a “blatantly illegal and fascistic assault on Higher Education and the most vulnerable members of our community.”
Representing the CUNY Internationalist Club was Chantal Rios, a Hunter College student organizer and member of the CUNY Internationalist Club who also delivered remarks during the rally.
“What we need to do as students is unite with labor and for labor to use its enormous potential power in the struggle to defend immigrants and to stop the raids, to stop the deportation, to stop the kidnappings of our students in this city,” Rios said.
CUNY schools have a long history of protests in education going back to the Civil Rights era. In February, a coalition of CUNY students, faculty, and staff successfully protested outside of John Jay College against a special recruitment session that was planned by the DHS’s Customs and Border Protection Agency.
Saturday saw more “Hands off” mass protests in New York and across the country against Trump’s policies. More information regarding future rallies can be found at the American Civil Liberties Union website.
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