Coming Up
Bargaining starts in the new year!
FAM’s wins happen when colleagues stand together. Join FAM in fighting for more in our 2026 contract. Get ready to turn out for actions and talk to colleagues about the value of membership.
#UnionPower: Support our fellow workers with holiday solidarity actions!
Columbus Metropolitan Library workers (organizing with AFT!) just dropped cards! Write to their bosses and tell them to recognize the union now.
OSU Nurses Association (our AFT fellows) needs your support. OSU continues to fail to protect their staff and create a safe environment for their patients, so ONA are demanding some extremely overdue changes to combat the problem. Send letters to tell OSU leadership to accept the union’s demands.
The Columbus Dispatch News Guild has organized news workers at the Dispatch and the Newark Advocate, but the USA TODAY Co. and leadership at the two papers are refusing to recognize the union. Sign the petition to show your support.
Protect America’s Workforce Act: The House of Representatives has secured enough bipartisan support to force a vote on the Protect America’s Workforce Act before the year ends. Call your representative here or dial 855-493-4407 to let them know of your support. If you’ve already made a call, send an email to your representative, too.
Support Starbucks Workers! Starbucks baristas around the country have been on strike since November 13 to demand fair compensation and better working conditions. Megamillionaire Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is a Miami alum. Show him what Love & Honor means by signing the “No Contract, No Coffee” pledge.
Defend the Rights of Immigrants in Ohio: Ohio HB 1/SB 88 would forbid foreign nationals (including our co-workers and students) to buy property in Ohio that’s deemed “strategically important” — unfairly targeting them under the guise of national security. Learn more and sign and share this petition.
On show at King Library: Workers Unite!
Visit a fascinating Special Collections exhibition organized by librarian Rachel Makarowski on the history of unionization. Workers Unite! The Struggles and Successes of Unionization Efforts at Miami University will be on show through spring in King LIbrary, Room 320.
Join the FAM Slack
It’s is the best way to keep up with FAM actions, news and activities. Write info@famiami.org for the link.
National Updates
No Public Universities Signed the Loyalty Oath
AAUP and AFT faculty alongside students nationwide united to reject the Trump compact and defend the principle that no president has the right to buy obedience or sell off freedom. And the pressure is working. Almost all the universities approached have refused to sign or given no response.
Political Attacks on Higher Ed
The Trump-era Department of Education has slashed research funding, attacked academic freedom, and threatened universities with severe financial penalties unless they give up autonomy over hiring, admission, and programs and submit to ideological loyalty oaths.
Read AAUP’s summary of Trump-era attacks on higher education, which also lists resources and upcoming events.
Your Union Is Fighting Back
AAUP, AFT and allies have filed nine lawsuits and counting against recent attacks on higher education funding, freedom of speech, international students and faculty and more. A portion of your membership dues goes to support this crucial legal fight, which so far AAUP and AFT have been winning. Read the latest here.
Join AAUP, AFT and allies in bullding a movement in support of higher education as a democratic public good, promoting accessibility, affordability and quality and defending against attacks on funding, programs and academic freedom, and faculty and students. Members, watch your email for invitations to organizing events.
Toolkits
- Defending Our Campus and Community Toolkit: Scroll down this page for AFT-AAUP’s useful advocacy and resistance toolkit for higher education. Topics include immigration, science and research, diversity-equity-inclusion, funding, student loans, accreditation, and anticipatory obedience.
- Defending Higher Education in 2025 (AFT)
- Toolkit: Protect Higher Education (Innovation Ohio)
FAQs
What should I do if ICE or other federal agents come to my class?
Faculty should send any ICE or other federal agent to the Office of General Counsel for guidance. Faculty are not to give information to ICE or other federal agents directly. You are not required to speak to them other than to send them to General Counsel.
Miami has no way of tracking the immigration status of any of our students. Miami does not keep such records. You can tell that to an ICE agent: “I don’t know; we don’t track immigration status.”
This information was provided by the University.
What resources can I share with students and colleagues facing immigration concerns?
We encourage you to share out the immigration resources on AFT/AAUP’s Defending Higher Education web page, including this resource on free or nearly free immigration legal services from the National Immigration Legal Services.
What should I do if I am a faculty member experiencing targeted harassment?
Here is an AAUP-sponsored site, Faculty First Responders, with advice on steps to take. As soon as you can, contact FAM at info@famiami.org and report to University Counsel.
Ohio Legislative Updates
Ohio’s new SB1 “Compliance” bill — what you need to know
What is SB 1?
Ohio Senate Bill 1, which became law in spring of 2025, blocks diversity and equity efforts, constrains faculty speech, and curbs collective bargaining rights. Read overviews of SB 1 here (synopsis grouped by issue) and here (media summary).
SB 1 Guidance for Faculty
SB 1 harms Ohio higher education in both reputation and fact, but FAM’s contract protects faculty from some of its worst effects, safeguarding academic freedom, mandating progressive discipline and enabling legal arbitration.
If you feel your freedom of research or teaching is being violated, or if you are targeted for your speech in or outside the classroom, contact FAM immediately.
About SB 1
Major Issues with SB1
Retrenchment (a.k.a. layoffs): The bills retain overly broad definitions of retrenchment, allowing it to be invoked at nearly any time.
Faculty strikes banned and prohibited subjects for bargaining: The bill would not only prohibit faculty from striking, but inserts language on course load policies, post-tenure review, retrenchment, and evaluations — then prohibits them as topics we can even bargain on.
Complete ban on DEI: All diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities, including scholarships, would all be prohibited. The bill not only prohibits renaming programs, but requires snitching and discipline if anyone continues DEI practices.
Intellectual diversity: The bills contain contradictory and confusing language about ensuring “intellectual diversity,” which raises serious academic freedom concerns and would open faculty to unsubstantiated complaints.
Faculty evaluation: Requires the following student course evaluation question: “Does the faculty member create a classroom atmosphere free of political, racial, gender, and religious bias?”— a question that may invite prejudiced ratings of faculty who teach controversial material or are members of minoritized identity groups: SB 1 also requires post-tenure review, which in combination with new opportunities for faculty to fail to meet ideological litmus tests could threaten academic freedom. FAM’s contract, however, safeguards academic freedom and protects Miami faculty by mandating progressive discipline and enabling legal arbitration.
More Ohio Legislation Updates
Follow legislation affecting higher education (as well as K-12) using these trackers from Honesty in Ohio Education.
Ohio Student Association for student organizing.