NEA Today for NEA Higher Ed, October 2025

We Must Protect Higher Education

Hello! My name is Alec Thomson. I am a community college professor from Livonia, Mich., and president of the 
National Council for Higher Education (NCHE). As a council, NCHE advocates within NEA and throughout the country on critical issues facing faculty, staff, and students.

This is your first issue of NEA Today for NEA Higher Ed magazine. We are excited to have this tool to connect with each other, especially today.

As an NEA Higher Ed member, I am certain that you, like me, are witnessing a seemingly endless parade of politically motivated attacks that threaten our campuses. Certainly, you harbor no illusions that the efforts to rewrite curriculum, reduce funding, restrict free speech, and eliminate civil rights protections are being adopted so as to expand or improve higher education. These attacks seek to transform America’s higher education system from places defined by opportunity and innovation into institutions of limited accessibility where political interference pushes out critical thinking, autonomy, and integrity.

Given this environment, our efforts are more critical than ever. We must defend and protect higher education. And we must advance and improve it. Setting aside today’s cruel political attacks, we face a changing educational landscape that requires new ideas and policies.

Thus, I ask you to consider two courses of action: First, take note of the activities hosted by NEA to mark National Higher Education Month. (See Page 24.) These events will not only be informational, but will help us to connect and share our experiences and concerns. Second, please consider becoming a member of NCHE. Your membership gives weight to our advocacy, while providing you with support and access to a community of like-minded professionals. Join at nea.org/NCHE.