Mandatory Dues Fund Campus Politics

At elite universities in non–right-to-work states, graduate unions are making dues or agency fees a condition of teaching and research employment. Significant shares of those dues flow to national unions that campaign on broader political agendas (e.g., BDS, defunding police), while religious‑exemption processes are policed by the union itself. Recent cases include Stanford’s 2024 contract enabling termination of nonpayers and Cornell’s EEOC fight over invasive questioning of Jewish objectors. — This highlights a governance mechanism that can compel political financing and suppress dissent in academia under the guise of labor agreements, raising First Amendment–style association concerns and reform questions for university labor policy.