PSUFA Signs Cross-Union Statement Rejecting Federal Investigation Into PSU Protests
PSUFA is proud to stand with our sibling campus unions and student leadership in rejecting the Trump administration’s spurious investigation into PSU. On Friday, March 14, representatives from PSUFA, PSU-AAUP, GEU, SEIU-503, and ASPSU presented PSU President Ann Cudd with a statement condemning these investigations and calling on university leadership to protect students, faculty, and staff from this baseless attack on academic speech and freedom of expression.
See the full statement below, including a plain text version at the end of this post.
STATEMENT (Finalized on 3/5/2025)
The Associated Students of Portland State University, the Graduate Employees Union at PSU, PSUFA AFT local 3571, PSU-AAUP, and SEIU Local 503 Chapter 89 reject the premise of the federally directed investigation into antisemitism at PSU. This investigation emerges not from a specific complaint from a PSU community member, but instead from the Trump administration's desire to intimidate higher education writ large into compliance with the administration’s highly partisan goals and agenda by threatening select institutions with having their federal funding revoked. To achieve this end, the Trump administration has decided to weaponize a highly controversial and contested definition of antisemitism that conflates criticism of state policy with discrimination in order to suppress free speech, political dissent, and the academic freedom that is essential to a rigorous college education.
We reject, and call on PSU leadership to reject, this and all other efforts by the Trump administration to characterize student, staff, and faculty protest against war and genocide as antisemitic or supportive of terrorism. Protests against state violence which has been identified by the international community as long-form crimes against humanity is not anti-semitism, nor is support for Palestinian peoples facing genocide.
We also reject harassment of any kind, particularly of our Jewish and Palestinian students, co-workers, and colleagues. We call on PSU leadership to protect students, staff, and faculty in response to this baseless investigation. We have a duty of care to all of the students who come to PSU and trust us with their education. It would be a failure of this duty to allow our students to be targeted by this spurious investigation. The stakes of this investigation for campus workers are high and the administration has an obligation to protect the campus community against baseless political investigations that seek to chill academic speech and freedom of expression.
Signatories
The Graduate Employees Union at PSU (AFT/AAUP # 6666)
SEIU Local 503, Chapter 89 (PSU)
PSUFA AFT local 3571
Associated Students Of Portland State University
PSU - AAUP