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When the Trump administration invited nine elite universities to exchange blind loyalty for favoritism and federal funding, the AFT, the American Association of University Professors and academics across the nation called it out for what it was: a blatant attempt to control higher education. All but two of the universities roundly rejected the highly partisan “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” and resistance is gaining momentum.
“At a time when higher education is under relentless political attack, the universities that refused to sign onto [President Donald] Trump’s Faustian bargain showed real courage and integrity,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “They chose to stand with students, educators, and the principles of academic freedom, institutional integrity, and the very soul of higher education instead of bowing to partisan pressure.”
“No amount of federal inducement is worth surrendering the freedom to question, explore, and dissent,” said AAUP President Todd Wolfson. “Trump’s corrupt bribery attempt would usher in a new draconian era of thought policing in American higher education, cripple our technological innovation capacity, and assault our very democracy. Now is the time for all who care about the future of higher education to resist.”
Among other things, the compact would prohibit institutions from considering race or sex in hiring and admissions, freeze tuition for five years, limit international student enrollment, require standardized tests for applicants, eliminate departments that “punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” and publish anonymous reports from students and staff on compliance with the compact.
In exchange, universities would have easier access to federal money, looser restrictions on overhead funds and a presumption of compliance with civil rights law. There are also consequences for failing to comply, including withholding of federal funds.
A resounding ‘no’
Thousands of students, faculty, campus workers, alumni and community members rose up on Oct. 17 to resist the compact, which they framed as bribery. As Trump has widened his invitation to all colleges and universities, organizations representing nearly 1,000 campuses have responded with a nationwide campaign to resist.
Students, faculty, staff and alumni gathered at the nine institutions that were initially targeted to rally, conduct teach-ins and push back against presidential overreach. At a virtual town hall hosted by the AFT and AAUP, a panel of leaders aligned to urge universities to reject Trump’s compact. Students, who have been leaders in the movement against the compact, were front and center.
“We’ve known since the moment he was elected that he would want to come for our curricula, that he would want to come for our academic freedom, and most importantly that he would want to come for our communities,” said Caitlyn Carpenter, a Brown University student involved with Sunrise Brown and Brown Rise Up, referring to Trump. Students from each of the targeted institutions coordinated efforts and pushed back hard. At Brown, that meant a rally of about 200 people, a robust social media presence and a strong team involving faculty, alumni, graduate and undergraduate students, and more.
“We knew that if one school accepted this deal, it would exponentially increase the pressure on other schools to say yes to it,” said Carpenter. “At the same time … if one school says no then it opens the door, and it has opened the door for other universities to follow. We want to continue the momentum because this is far from over.”
“Student movements have been critical to winning against authoritarians throughout history and around the globe,” said American University student Kaden Ouimet, naming revolutions like the ones in Serbia, in Chile and in the United States during the civil rights era. Ouimet works with the Frontline for Freedom Network and Public Citizen. “Our plan is to mobilize thousands of students, staff and faculty for a national day of action Nov. 7.” Plans are already in place for teach-ins, mass rallies, walkouts and more.
The refusal to join the compact “is more than a policy decision,” said Seattle high school teacher and education activist Jesse Hagopian. “It’s a declaration that the truth is sacred, that knowledge cannot be coerced and that education will refuse to kneel to power.”
It’s far worse now
Many activists are comparing the attempt at coercion to McCarthyism, that period during the 1950s when Sen. Joseph McCarthy led the persecution of so-called communists. Ellen Schrecker, a professor emerita of American history at Yeshiva University and a longtime AAUP leader, remembers it well, and in fact lost her sixth-grade teacher to the scourge.
When she is asked to compare then and now, she says, “What is happening today is much, much worse.” While the 1950s attacks focused on individuals, today’s attacks are much broader, demanding that “universities commit suicide” by adjusting their purpose to suit the “MAGA oligarchy.”
But resistance is different, too. “Unlike the total acquiescence, fear and silence that suffused almost every campus during the 1950s, there is now resistance,” said Schrecker. “We are standing together, and we are saying enough already. Hands off our universities. And we’re being heard.”
“The Trump administration has tried many different ways now to stifle, to censor the alchemy of universities,” said the AFT’s Weingarten. “We see what works to fight this kind of suppression, oppression and repression is people standing up. Students, faculty, alumni, community … standing up together to create a big tent. We understand our assignment at this moment, and that is to be courageous and … supportive and … out there not only with a warning, but with [a message of] what can be.”
It is worth noting that there have been law firms and corporations refusing to cooperate with Trump as well, said Weingarten. The swell of resistance on “No Kings” day Oct. 18, with 7 million people protesting Trump policies, is only increasing momentum. And organizers are looking toward Nov. 7, the higher education day of action, as another day to declare that universities will not capitulate to Trump’s vision of repressed and confined higher education.
“AAUP, AFT, our members, our students and our communities are standing up and standing together—and it’s working,” said Weingarten.
Join the AFT-AAUP Campaign for Higher Education: Saving Lives, Building Futures, Powering the Economy, where we are fighting exactly the sort of weaponization of funding Trump is attempting with his loyalty oath.
[Virginia Myers]