UVMSU members immediately understood the danger of surrendering sensitive personal documents in a time when the federal government is targeting workers and students who are immigrants and who are queer. It also felt an awful lot like what the federal administration is doing: making unfounded accusations of waste, fraud, and abuse, asking for our papers, and targeting DEI work, so, together with United Academics and UE Local 267, we fought back.
Over the course of several months, UVMSU members, alongside UA and UE 267, organized around this issue. When the UVM administration refused to bargain the terms of the audit with us, we turned to people power. Our members ramped up the pressure on the administration, most importantly by delaying their compliance with the audit, and subsequently marching on HR and the President’s office, to call for her to pause the audit and negotiate. | 
