Friends,
We did it! Thanks to your overwhelming response to our “Reject the Trump Administration’s Compact” petition, Carolina’s leadership has expressed its opposition to signing on to the Trump administration’s so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
At a faculty council meeting last Friday, Chancellor Lee Roberts called the compact an “infringement on academic freedom” and assured faculty that the University was not pursuing signing on to the compact, stating:
“There are some parts of the compact that we are already doing and there are some parts of the compact that would be difficult or impossible for us to do. There’s really no way that we can sign the compact as written and we don’t plan to.”
In the wake of continued federal assaults on higher education, Chancellor Roberts has spent considerable time communicating with officials in Washington DC, and he relayed to faculty the encouraging insight that he does not foresee a “continued effort” from the Trump administration to get schools to adopt the terms of the compact.
The compact had recently been extended to every university in the country after the majority of the initial nine schools invited to sign on rejected the terms of the compact.
Thank you to each and every one of you who signed the petition and shared it with your friends and family. We have received more than 1,860 signatures to date! We are proud of the quick, aggressive organizing work the Coalition did around this issue, and we even got a shout out from WUNC for the impressive response to the petition!
Thank you also to the many other groups and individuals who spoke out in opposition to the compact. It was truly a team effort, with many members of the Carolina community making their voices heard – from faculty and staff to alumni and current students.
Finally, thank you to University leaders and Chancellor Lee Roberts for taking a public stand against the compact. Many major institutions, including our neighbors at Duke, are still waiting for a strong, declarative rejection of the compact by their university leaders. We are proud to see Carolina leading in defending academic integrity and preserving institutional independence by coming out publicly against this harmful ultimatum by the federal government.
With every new day, it seems there is a new battle in the world of higher education. For today, we will celebrate the resolution of this one. And as always, we will keep you updated on what’s to come.
Thank you again,
The Coalition for Carolina
P.S. As the Trump administration’s offer to join the compact lingers in the world of higher education, we will continue to keep the petition open for those who want to publicly express their opposition to the compact.