National SDS Statement Against the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education: Reject the Compact!

On October 1st, the Trump administration sent out a 10-point letter titled the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” to nine major universities around the country, with the threat of withholding preferential funding if their demands are not met. Seeing the poor reception the compact received by some of those universities that are still driven by academic integrity, the administration pivoted, and now the compact is being offered as an open invitation to all universities around the country.

These Demands Include:
Commitment to an inaccurate, conservative definition of gender and excluding transgender students from using the correct facilities.

Disallowing the consideration of marginalization in admissions, financial aid, or hiring

Restricting free expression on campus under the guise of protecting campuses from disruption

Commitment to the use of force and “swift, serious, and consistent sanctions” against student activists

Requires faculty to abstain from speech related to politics in their official capacity

Abolishing “institutional units” that cause perceived harm to conservative ideas

Limiting undergraduate populations to having no more than 15% of students on foreign visas, and no more than 5% coming from any one country

This is a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to take control of our academic institutions and use them as a tool to spread dangerous conservative values that directly oppose the “academic excellence” the administration extols. These values are rooted in white supremacy, sexism, transphobia, and all- around bigotry that seeks to oppress or eliminate everyone who isn’t a cisgender heterosexual white male.

Acquiescence to these demands sets the dangerous precedent that academic institutions are merely tools for the dissemination of the ruling party’s political propaganda.

Any university that signs this compact is handing over the academic freedom and freedom of expression of its students to the Trump administration and giving the corrupt Department of Justice free rein to persecute students and staff for perceived violations of the intentionally vague wording of the compact.

If Trump sees that he can bully our universities into forfeiting the crucial rights of any functioning academic institution by merely threatening their funding, it only encourages the administration to continue accelerating their attacks on all of our rights—both on and off campus.

While the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Brown University have already rejected the compact, the fate of the other six schools in the Compact Nine, and all universities across the country whose administrations are driven by the promise of funding, is still up in the air.

National Students for a Democratic Society refuses to allow this administration to defile the integrity of our academic institutions for political gain. As students, it is our duty to learn from the lessons of the past and stand firmly against any force that attempts to revitalize harmful and regressive movements that threaten us all.

This administration has shown they will not stop until all of academia in the United States is firmly under its grasp, so we call upon all chapters to organize students against the beginning of Trump’s attempt to completely take over our universities before it’s too late.

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!