Trump's Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education

Kit Johnson

Kit Johnson

— 1 min read
Trump's Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education
Mys 721tx, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of hearing Dean Chemerinsky speak on issues relating to free speech and civil discourse on university campuses. Among other topics, Chemerinsky addressed President Trump's Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. If this 9 page memo has not made it to your radar yet, it's time to tune in.

According to Bloomberg Law, this document was sent to 9 universities--some public and some private. Two--Brown and MIT--have already declined to join the compact.

Here are just a few nuggets from the administration's proposal regarding first amendment issues, international students, and the extraordinary consequences of violating the compact:

  • "Signatories commit themselves to ... transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas."
  • "... signatories shall adopt a policy protecting academic freedom in classrooms, teaching, research, and scholarship. Such policies also shall recognize that academic freedom is not absolute, and universities shall adopt policies that prevent discriminatory, threatening, harassing, or other behaviors that abridge the rights of other members of the university community."
  • "no more than 15 percent of a university’s undergraduate student population shall be participants in the Student Visa Exchange Program, and no more than 5 percent shall be from any one country."
  • "Adherence to this agreement shall be subject to review by the Department of Justice. Universities found to have willfully or negligently violated this agreement shall lose access to the benefits of this agreement ... upon determination of any violations, all monies advanced by the U.S. government during the year of any violation shall be returned to the U.S. government. Finally, any private contributions to the university during the year(s) in which such violation occurred shall be returned to the grantor upon the request of the grantor."

There is a LOT to unpack in this document. I'm sure it will be the subject of many more posts to come.

Meanwhile, President Trump is discussing the issue over at Truth Social:

Read more

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By Kevin R. Johnson
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