Miami University must reject the compact.
October 14, 2025
The Faculty Alliance of Miami (FAM, AAUP-AFT, Local 375) was alarmed to read reports that — after MIT’s rejection of the federal government’s so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” along with the threat of other universities’ rejection of the compact — the Trump administration has now invited all universities to sign on, saying that failing to sign would jeopardize federal funding. Compliance would be subject to ongoing review by the Department of Justice, and insufficient obedience would result in a loss of access to student loans, grant programs, federal contracts, funding for research, approval of visas, and tax exemption.
When an invitation is accompanied by consequences for not accepting it, it is in fact a threat, not an invitation. University decisions are made according to shared governance procedures that are essential to the independence and academic freedom of the University.
Miami University must not allow itself to be threatened into ceding its self-determination. Whatever the consequences of refusal, agreeing would threaten the very mission of the university. We therefore demand that Miami University refuse to sign this compact.
This attempt at coercion is just one of the many examples of intensifying political interference in higher education. Going far beyond Senate Bill 1’s limitations on diversity efforts, the compact makes other demands about admission that undermine the Civil Rights Act of 1964, like requiring the use of standardized tests and limiting the admission of international students, that should be left to the University in consultation with faculty. It requires the University to make certain ideological commitments regarding sex and gender that are incompatible with both science and Miami’s values, and orders that bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports be segregated accordingly. It claims to ensure a vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus, but requires the University to screen out foreign students with “noxious values” or “hostility to the United States, its allies, or its values,” requires “serious” disciplinary action and the use of force “if necessary” to prevent disruption by demonstrators, and requires open-ended information-sharing with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State. Given recent government actions to suppress the expression of ideas with which it disagrees, such as the unconstitutional policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy, this can only be interpreted as a thinly-veiled attempt to restrict academic freedom to those who express government-approved views, defeating the very purpose of academic freedom and of higher education as a whole.
While the loss of federal funding would threaten Miami’s ability to perform its vital education and research work, agreeing to this compact would not forestall that outcome. A concession to threats will simply embolden the Trump administration to come back for more. Funding cuts are also not insurmountable. For example, the university could temporarily raise the rate of spending on its generous endowment, while collaborating with other institutions to sue for the restoration of unconstitutionally withheld funds. Sacrificing our values, on the other hand, would irreparably damage the fabric of our university. Miami’s motto, Love and Honor, obligates us to defend liberal education as a public good and care about all of our students, staff, and faculty. Now is the time to put that principle into practice.
Sign the petition: tell all universities to reject the compact!
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