A burgeoning movement among Big Ten universities would create an alliance to counter government attacks on higher education, which the White House says aim to end “woke’’ policies on campuses it views as fostering antisemitism and harboring foreign students engaged in “known illegal’’ activity.
Several faculty and university senates have approved resolutions asking their leaders to sign a NATO-like agreement that would allow the institutions to share attorneys and pool financial resources in case President Trump’s administration targets one of its members.
The Washington Post reached out to all 18 senates and administrations at schools in the Big Ten for comment. Many professors contacted said the proposed compact was vital to ensure they are protected from a White House that has cut research funding, revoked visas of international students, and tried to direct curriculum at some institutions. Most administrators, with whom the final decision will lie, did not directly address the issue.
The faculty and university senates at six schools have signed resolutions asking their administrators to join the effort, including Indiana University, University of Nebraska, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Rutgers University, and University of Washington.
A special senate meeting Thursday at the University of Minnesota will consider the “mutual academic defense compact’’ resolution. The same is expected to take place at Ohio State University, the largest Big Ten school, despite school spokesperson Chris Booker telling the Post that “it is not legally permissible for the university to participate in a common defense fund.’’
The situation across campuses is extremely charged because of the Trump administration’s threats to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding to higher education. To date, officials have primarily gone after Ivy League institutions. Harvard University — with its $53.2 billion endowment — has been its largest target.
But the Big Ten isn’t an enclave of elite, Northeastern schools that cultivate America’s next ruling class. It represents land-grant universities in the Midwest — and corn-fed athletics programs —that are central to each state’s identity.
“Big Ten institutions haven’t been in the crosshairs, but they can read the writing on the wall,’’ said Jon Fansmith, senior vice president for the American Council on Education.
All but one of the schools have been spared so far. Still, nine received a letter from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights warning of “potential enforcement actions’’ if they fail “to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.’’ Each recipient saw campus protests in support of Palestinians during the 2023-2024 academic year.
The administration’s onslaught changed the calculus of whether to fight, Fansmith said. For many college presidents he represents, the prevailing thought now is: “Trying to keep a low profile won’t stop the attacks.’’
Yet he said he also suspects they would be wary to sign onto the compact without knowing exactly what it would require.
Only administrators, not faculty senates, can commit their institutions to the compact.
The Rutgers faculty senate became the first to support a Big Ten compact with its vote on March 28. Organizers there plan to stage a teach-in next week and May Day protests with other campuses next Thursday in support of the compact, journalism professor Todd Wolfson said. He expects a protracted fight with university administrations over the summer.
“We have had to lead and they have followed us,’’ Wolfson said. “Now we will demand they actually put resources into defending our campuses.’’
Wolfson also serves as president of the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP is a union with chapters at more than 500 schools, including several in the Big Ten. It is among the first to sue the Trump administration to block federal cuts to higher education funding, he noted, and is now pressuring school leaders to band together to fight back.
Steven “Jim’’ Sherman, a psychology professor emeritus at Indiana University, modeled the successful resolution he proposed at its faculty senate earlier this month on the Rutgers language. He was motivated in part by an incident last month when the FBI raided the home of a tenured colleague. University administrators never explained why the cybersecurity professor lost his job.
Concerns over the incident followed the faculty senate’s 2024 vote of no confidence in both the president and provost and a board of trustees decision in February to significantly increase the president’s salary and extend her contract to 2031.
To Sherman, that suggests the challenge ahead in getting trustees to endorse a compact. “It will not be done quickly or easily. I have no illusions about that,’’ he said.
The stakes are personal for some in the fight.
Greyson Arnold, a doctoral student in family social science and an AAUP organizer at the University of Minnesota, has been organizing support for a compact.
“We have seen the effects of federal attacks on our campus already,’’ he said, including federal immigration officers detaining a student and other international students whose visas were revoked or who lost federal DEI-related grants and lab jobs.