{"id":1222,"date":"2025-04-18T17:11:35","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T17:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/?p=1222"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:33:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T14:33:04","slug":"big-ten-schools-creating-a-mutual-defense-compact-against-trump-actions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/18\/big-ten-schools-creating-a-mutual-defense-compact-against-trump-actions\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten schools creating a 'mutual defense compact' against Trump actions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The faculty senates in the Big Ten Academic Alliance are creating a \u201cmutual defense compact\u201d to fight against President Trump\u2019s ongoing attacks on higher education.  <\/p>\n

The faculty senate of Rutgers University began the initiative, passing a resolution April 6 to establish the compact among the Big Ten\u2019s 18 universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe it resolved that, the Rutgers University Senate urges the President of Rutgers University to formally propose and help establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) among all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance,\u201d the resolution said.  <\/p>\n

The resolution says it is in response to the Trump administration\u2019s \u201clegal, financial and political\u201d attacks on academic freedom and the missions of universities.  <\/p>\n

Rutgers’s resolution has since been joined by at least four faculty senates at other Big Ten schools, with Michigan State University becoming the latest Tuesday.<\/p>\n

In the Rutgers resolution, it says schools that participate should be willing to make legal counsel, experts and public affairs offices available to any institution that is facing pressure from the Trump administration.  <\/p>\n

A fund would also be created to provide \u201cimmediate and strategic support\u201d to universities.  <\/p>\n

\u201cSenators have a moral and ethical responsibility to review matters that are impacting anything related to university level, academic freedom, curriculum, policies, etc, and if they see any kind of dangers of infraction on those fronts, then it’s the [university] senate’s responsibility to collect that information and have a pretty robust conversation about it, and then take a vote on it and bring it to the [university] president’s attention,\u201d Lucille Foster, chair of the Rutgers senate, told The Hill. <\/p>\n

Resolutions by faculty senates are nonbinding, but Foster argues at universities you want to start \u201con a micro level and then work your way up.\u201d <\/p>\n

The \u201cadministration is in support of our starting on a micro level with the Big 10 senates,\u201d Foster added. \u201cI think very few successful things happen on a macro level, right? I think, if you’re in charge, if you’re a CEO or a president, you can make very sweeping motions, but that isn’t the way most universities want to work. You really want to start on a ground level.\u201d <\/p>\n

The University of Nebraska, Indiana University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst have also adopted the resolution.<\/p>\n

But there has been some hesitation from other universities out of fear of retaliation from the administration, with some pointing out it could be more difficult for those in red states to participate.<\/p>\n

Rutgers will be hosting a meeting in May and encouraging anyone with hesitations to come and ask questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an unrealistic bar to think that … you will get 100 percent support, right? That’s unrealistic. But I think that, quietly, there were a lot of schools that had contacted me and said, \u2018I don’t know if we can sign on, but we’d love to participate in the conversation,\u2019 and that, to me, is successful.\u201d Foster said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as long as you’re in the room and you feel like you have a voice and you’re being heard, and I, again, both sides … I’m looking for bipartisan support. I’m not just looking for one side of the conversation,\u201d she added.  <\/p>\n

Trump has made colleges and universities a prime target of his second administration, going after their federal funding, seeking to purge diversity programs and seeking to deport an unknown number of international students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The faculty senates in the Big Ten Academic Alliance are creating a \u201cmutual defense compact\u201d to fight against President Trump\u2019s ongoing attacks on higher education.   The faculty senate of Rutgers University began the initiative, passing a resolution April 6 to establish the compact among the Big Ten\u2019s 18 universities. \u201cBe it resolved that, the Rutgers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1223,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1222\/revisions\/1223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}