Campus Leaders Mobilize to Battle Trump's Anti-Education 'Compact' Tooth and Nail

Campus activist groups are banding together to fight against President Donald Trump's proposed "compact" with universities in which they would receive priority access to federal funding in exchange for pledging support for aspects of the president's political agenda.

The Sunrise Movement on Wednesday said that students and workers at the universities who have been invited by the Trump administration to sign the compact have "already gathered thousands of petition signatures" urging school administrators to reject it, and they are "planning coordinated campus protests in the coming weeks" to keep the pressure on their schools to resist any effort to infringe upon academic freedom.

The proposed deal with the Trump administration requires that universities abolish institutions on campus that "purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas." Additionally, it would completely overhaul admissions processes so that schools are not allowed to consider factors "such as sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, [or] religious associations."

Critics have said that agreeing to these terms would essentially end schools' academic freedom, and the Sunrise Movement compiled quotes from both students and professors explaining their opposition to the Trump administration's proposed deal.

Kelsey Levine, a student at the University of Virginia, said the school's signature on the agreement would be tantamount to "selling out its most vulnerable populations of students: international students, transgender students, and students of color," as well as "compromising its foundational principles of independence, truth-seeking, and democracy."

Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, described the Trump administration's proposal as a "corrupt bribery attempt" that "would usher in a new draconian era of thought policing in American higher education, cripple our technological innovation capacity, and assault our very democracy."

Evan Bowman, vice chair of Higher Ed Labor United, said that the battle against the Trump administration's efforts to infringe upon academic freedom were being waged with an all-hands-on-deck effort.

"Workers, students, campus community members across this great country are coming together to fight for a higher education system that actually works for all," he said. "One that is affordable, strengthens freedom and democracy, and stands up to its public mission."

Jan-Werner Müller, a professor of politics at Princeton University, wrote in The Guardian on Tuesday that all universities must reject Trump's proposal on the grounds that "it is a thinly veiled attack on academic freedom; it is a test case for whether Trumpists can get away with demanding loyalty oaths; it exceeds the president’s powers to begin with; and it is bound to achieve the opposite of its stated goal of 'academic excellence in higher education.'"

Müller also linked the agreement to what he described as "Trump's emerging mafia state," in which "there is no guarantee that those bending the knee will not be bullied again."

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Monday that only one institution, the University of Texas at Austin, has so far signaled support for the compact, while others have started to signal their opposition.

Dartmouth president Sian Beilock, for instance, said late last week that she was "deeply committed to Dartmouth’s academic mission and values and will always defend our fierce independence," and vowed that "we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves."

National legal organization Democracy Forward on Wednesday announced that it was launching an investigation into the Trump administration's efforts to strong-arm universities into signing the compact, which it described as an effort to "stifle free thought" on college campuses.

To that end, the organization is seeking access to all public records related to the compact, including "all records and communications between U.S. Department of Education officials... and any representatives" of the nine universities that were invited by the administration to sign.

Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said "every American should be concerned about these threats to freedom" from the Trump administration, adding that the organization would "get to the bottom of what is happening to protect people and our democracy."