Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

www.texastribune.org/2025/10/02/u... shameful that this was not immediately rejected. I’m disgusted with my grad school Alma mater leadership.

Still time to register for Monday's @aaup.org webinar on the state-backed threat to independent higher education accreditation www.aaup.org/event/politi...

"The federal government should not, under any circumstances, dictate who goes to college, what can be researched, or learned, and what can or can’t be the subject of critical academic inquiry." - AFT President @rweingarten.bsky.social & @aaup.org President @proftwolf.bsky.social

The Trump admin’s offer to give preferential treatment to institutions that toe the party line reeks of bribery in exchange for allegiance to a partisan ideological agenda. This is corruption. Adherence to ‘loyalty oaths’ would usher in a new era of thought policing in American higher education.

“I learned early about the intrusive operations of state power in the daily routines of domestic life. For years, we all breathed a general air of anxiety.” Historian and @aaup.org member Joan Wallach Scott on the Red Scare, then and now:

"This is extortion, plain and simple.... The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education." A sobering analysis of the illegality of the administration's "compact" and its stakes for higher ed. 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

This conversation was very good and well worth watching: www.youtube.com/live/RB1FLkR... @aaup-penn.bsky.social @aaup.org @chenjerai.bsky.social @proftwolf.bsky.social

It’s a 1️⃣-2️⃣punch: The State of Texas, the Regents, & the President dissolve the Faculty Council. Then Trump offers a compact that will affect academic freedom, curriculum, student recruitment, research priorities, the future of academic programs. Once faculty had a voice in such decisions. No longer.

“No self-respecting university could ever accept something like this,” said Lee Bollinger, a First Amendment scholar and former Columbia University president. “Trying to protect conservative ideas against being ‘belittled’ — that’s about as violative of the First Amendment interests as you can get.”

✴️When we say What Starts Here Changes The World, this is not what we should mean!

University of Texas leaping to the top of the rankings of higher ed institutions most eager to cozy up to the authoritarian, taking over the top spot from previous leader, Columbia University. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Universities considering capitulating to the Trump “conditions” should use this real world example to understand they will simply be destroying their own institution. bsky.app/profile/nich...

‘Almost 60 US scientific societies have signed a letter calling on the US government to “safeguard the integrity” of the peer-review process when distributing grants.’ ⚛️🧪🔭 physicsworld.com/a/us-scienti...

Hey, @utaustin.bsky.social, are you listening? Signing Trump’s extortion “compact” is the surest way to turn an “new Ivy” into a national laughing stock. Just 👏 say 👏 NO!👏

“Acquiescing to a Mailman compact would be a profound betrayal of your students, staff, faculty, the public, higher education, and our shared democracy—one that would irretrievably tarnish your personal reputation and compromise your institution’s legacy.” 🔥

⭐️”Colleges and universities have an obligation to develop campus policies that protect the constitutional rights of their faculty to teach and research the subjects in their areas of expertise without intimidation or censorship,” said Brian Evans, president of the Texas conference of the AAUP. ⭐️

"Should Universities work together to fend off the administration's attacks on academic freedom and free speech?" is a key question that rank-and-file faculty (i.e., @aaup.org) are answering in the affirmative and University administrators are mostly shrugging off. Time is running out.

Hey, there @texasexes.org! 🤠 Sign the petition below to protect UT and demand President Davis refuse to sign the Trump administration’s “compact” for higher education, an attack on UTAustin’s integrity and independence! alumni.controlshift.app/petitions/tr...

UC’s Academic Council calls on the Office of the President & the UC Board of Regents to unequivocally reject governmental demands that compromise institutional autonomy and #academicfreedom. This is the way. #DefendHigherEd

It IS extortion. Gift article link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Chris Rufo's disastrous takeover of New College in Florida shows what universities would become if they sign the Trump regime's extortionary "compact." New College was supposed to model the anti-woke conservative higher-ed Americans crave. Instead, it showed the opposite, and serves as a warning.

Are you listening, Jim Davis? @utaustin.bsky.social

Why do billionaires with no background in #HigherEd get to determine what happens at our institutions?? 🧐 Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...

“By even considering signing, [universities] would be giving in to the kind of leveraging of speech power that…poses a serious threat to the (democratic + truth-seeking) values that the First Amendment protects.” Are you listening, @utaustin.bsky.social?? 🤨

Now we have the Trump Administration's "nice university ya' got there, shame if anything should happen to it" campaign centered around a mafia-style protection racket they call "The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." Did we help make it happen? 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

As an alum (my PHD granting institution), I'm calling the Univ of Texas Austin's President on Monday to tell him not to sign Trump's "compact." I don't have much hope that it will change his mind, but he needs to hear dissent.

“They’re asking us to sacrifice science. They’re asking us to sacrifice international students. They’re asking us to sacrifice our trans students. They’re asking us to sacrifice our whole idea of shared governance.No amount of money is worth that great long list" www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/04/b...

The compact is *very explicit* about the point that if you don't join it, you "elect[] to forego federal benefits"—not NEW benefits, but the "benefits" to which you are entitled now under federal law, from foreign students getting visas to all students getting loans to the school's 501(c)(3) status.

You’re next, @utaustin.bsky.social! Take a stand for Longhorn Pride and #SaveUT! 🧡✊🧡✊🧡 @texasexes.org

Another Texas-Ex here hoping @utaustin.bsky.social stands up for academic freedom.

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

🚨 Penn is being pressured by the Trump Admin to sign the “Compact for Academic Excellence,” risking academic freedom & student rights. Tell leadership to say NO. Read the AAUP-Penn statement & sign the petition ✍️: actionnetwork.org/petitions/ju...

Of course it’s a trap. “They would reward campuses that toe the party line and punish those that cherish their independence,” a statement from AAUP and AFT says. “In doing so, it would commit the very viewpoint discrimination it claims to redress.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Of course it’s a trap. “They would reward campuses that toe the party line and punish those that cherish their independence,” a statement from AAUP and AFT says. “In doing so, it would commit the very viewpoint discrimination it claims to redress.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

It’s a 1️⃣-2️⃣punch: The State of Texas, the Regents, & the President dissolve the Faculty Council. Then Trump offers a compact that will affect academic freedom, curriculum, student recruitment, research priorities, the future of academic programs. Once faculty had a voice in such decisions. No longer.

www.statesman.com/news/educati... "If you're in a state where there's been firing of faculty for what they said without any due process, for example, which we just saw happen, this policy only throws gasoline on the fire”—David DeMatthews, a UT professor of education policy and leadership

www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/educa... Contains a link to the Compact UT and 8 other universities are being pressured to sign

In an interview with the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, Maura Finkelstein discusses the coordinated campaign that led to the unjust termination from her position as tenured professor at Muhlenberg College—a decision that violated AAUP codes of academic freedom & due process.

Thank you to our colleagues at the State University of New York for this statement of solidarity! “Texas is the Lone Star State, but faculty in Texas must not be left to fight alone.” ✊❤️

🙏🙏Thank you to the CUNY Alliance to Defend Higher Education for denouncing Texas Tech’s instruction that faculty recognize only “two human sexes: male and female,” a blatant violation of #academicfreedom. We are stronger together! 💪

Pressure to reject the compact should come from all sides: Alumni, students, current employees, AND anyone who engages with people or work from the institution, high school students looking to attend, etc. We say NO. @standupforscience.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Pauline Strong, AAUP UT Austin chapter president: “Chairman Eltife and President Davis, we implore you to take a stand for Longhorn pride and academic excellence. Do not participate in a race to the bottom for once-proud institutions of higher education. Just say no!” 👏👏👏

This is extortion. Faculty, students, staff, alumni across the country need to get to their Presidents & Trustees today. Just say no. This blackmail only works if most everyone folds. Capitulation now means the end of American higher education for a generation. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

⭐️⭐️ Compact sent by the Trump administration to nine institutions of higher education, including UT Austin, available here:

“Everyone's so scared right now. Everyone's just trying to not get fired,” said one associate professor. “People don't go to campus as much because why would you? They shut their doors. They don't want to meet.”

Brian Evans, AAUP TX Conference: “Colleges + universities ‘have an obligation to develop campus policies that protect the Constitutional rights of faculty to teach + research the subjects in their areas of expertise without intimidation or censorship.”👇

its this part "If universities sign and then violate the terms of the compact, they could be forced to return any money given to them by the federal government that year as well as any private contributions." 👀 Stay in line OR ELSE

Anyone even broadly familiar with how universities are funded can see these compacts they are "offering" (along with much lower indirect cost rates) mean extreme cuts in many fields of study and student support services, and increased workloads for remaining faculty and staff.