Further limiting what faculty members at colleges and universities across the country are allowed to say in their classrooms, adopting the administration’s strict view of gender based on biological sex and capping the number of students participating in Student Visa Exchange Program at 15% of the undergraduate population is not what I would view as fostering Academic Excellence.
The misleading name of the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education makes it seem like a great idea in theory. However, this is another attempt by the current administration to target higher education and use colleges and universities across the country as modes of propaganda.
In early October, the Trump administration sent this document out to nine institutions including two SEC schools, Vanderbilt and The University of Texas at Austin. It has now been opened up to all of higher education in general. In the compact, the administration offered preferential federal funding for schools that agreed to carry out a specific set of requests. The manner in which this compact was offered and its requirements make it seem as nothing short of a bribe to end even more DEI programs.
These requests range from abolishing or transforming any institutional units that purposely “belittle” conservative ideas to further attacking the LGBTQ+ community by forcing these schools to adhere to a strict definition of gender based on biological functions and requiring “single-sex spaces” such as restrooms and locker rooms.
It is important to note that out of the nine original institutions this offer was extended to, eight rejected it, and The University of Texas at Austin still has not come to a conclusion. However, in light of the school’s indecision, students organized a march and sit-in to address the university’s lack of action to reject the agreement, alongside a separate protest regarding consolidation of smaller academic departments into their College of Liberal Arts.
This compact does not just affect students at these institutions, as we also saw UT-Austin staff creating and signing petitions and withholding donations as an act of protest.
Though the compact does not mention DEI, it is clearly meant to limit DEI programs. In a Truth Social post discussing the compact, Trump said, “Higher Education has lost its way, and is now corrupting our Youth and Society with WOKE, SOCIALIST, and ANTI-AMERICAN Ideology that serves as justification for discriminatory practices by Universities that are Unconstitutional and Unlawful…Our Nation’s Great Institutions will once again prioritize Merit and Hard Work before “group identity.”
Based on the fact that in the Marketplace of Ideas & Civil Discourse section of the compact it only goes in detail to protect conservative ideas, his idea of Anti-American ideology may be interpreted as anything in direct contrast with his own beliefs — including DEI, which has already been targeted.
The claim of creating a “vibrant marketplace of ideas” cannot be in the same document discussing limiting protests and screening international students for so-called “anti-American values.” What is vibrancy of ideas if not a diverse environment of political ideologies and students from all different backgrounds?
If diversity of ideas is truly the main goal of this compact, then the president should stop targeting DEI programs and instead agree with the fact that underrepresented demographics should have the same right to an education and resources as anyone else. It is baffling to see advocacy for diversity of ideas, while programs promoting it are constantly being undermined and underfunded.
Higher education is meant to be the place where people of all walks of life come together with one common goal — to learn. Students should be able to learn peacefully, not riddled by the propaganda of one political figure. The notion of handing out glorified bribes to institutions, with quite literally the future of this country in their hands, is obscene. Education and the knowledge you learn is forever. A presidency and its ideology is not.
