Sign the AFTNJ Petition!

AFTNJ has begun circulating a petition here. Please sign and share it widely.

The drastic measures planned by the WPU administration will gut the heart of the third most diverse public university in the State of New Jersey. William Paterson is a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with a population of 34% Latinx students; 21% of our students identify as African-American, and 30% are the first in their families to attend college. More than 60% of our students commute to campus, and most hold jobs and have family responsibilities in addition to pursuing their degrees. We currently rank in the top 5% of universities on the Social Mobility Index, a jump of 43 spots since last year. Faculty and staff are doing the important work of offering affordable, quality public education, and these cuts will negatively impact our ability to do that in the future. Not only will the faculty-to-student ratio increase if these changes are implemented, but there will also be fewer tenured faculty on campus. Tenure is not simply about job security; it also allows for the discussion of controversial topics in the classroom. University Administration is encouraging faculty to decolonize their curricula–and rightly so–but at the same time, they are destroying the hard-earned protections that allow faculty and teaching staff to do precisely that.