Please 

• take a look at the new list of resources on legislative threats to higher education to learn about action you can take at the state and federal levels

• watch last month’s expert-led webinar on responses to attacks on DEIA and academic freedom

• attend the MLA’s regular strategy sessions to learn about what’s working at schools across the country

Things are changing so quickly that you might consider organizing a just-in-time session for the annual convention in Toronto, helping us all stay up-to-date on where the resistance to attacks on higher education stands next January.

The MLA is working behind the scenes with other humanities organizations to defend against the slashing of the National Endowment for the Humanities and other threats to higher education, international students, and the humanities. The MLA and other organizations represented on the National Humanities Alliance executive committee have engaged counsel to evaluate legal claims the group could potentially bring against the Trump administration for the termination of National Endowment for the Humanities grants and other related issues. 

To support this work, we have pledged our own resources and ask you to help too. If you want to add your voice to these efforts, please consider donating to Paving the Way, which will help defray the considerable costs of the advocacy work the MLA is already doing for the humanities in the face of massive challenges. We ask you to think about how much you would be willing to spend to challenge the administration’s misguided cuts and to then donate that amount to help us do it. The MLA is leveraging existing resources, but new challenges mean that considerably more resources will be needed. A preliminary amount of $50,000 will get this effort started, and we have pledged to kick off the fundraising with $10,000. Please help us reach and exceed the $50,000 goal. We know this is a fight that will not be over quickly, and there will be more work to come.

A gift of even $10 will mean that you were a part of the pushback against these attacks on federal programs that have supported so many of our members, both individually and through institutional programs.