A group of universities, where many universities are federally funded, could quickly rebel against President Donald Trump’s executive order, which concludes progressive initiatives in public education, with campus activists.
Members of the Rutgers University Advisory Committee recently passed a resolution opposed to the Trump administration’s orders to establish a “mutual defense compact” to pool the legal and policy resources of member institutions within the Big Ten Academic Alliance. The resolution calls Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway to lead the effort and “plays a leading role in convening the pinnacle of Big Ten’s academic and legal leadership to begin implementing this compact.”
One professor who spoke with Fox News Digital responded, “The left has discovered freedom of speech.”
“These are the same people who punish other members of the university community for using the wrong pronouns for so-called microattacks,” Dr. Kevin John Williams, a professor of cardiovascular science at Temple University, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
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“They banned conservative speakers, stopped conservative speakers from coming to campus by engaging in violence, and retracted offers to future applicants that were accepted based on those who found what they did when they were 11 or 12,” Williams said. “So they were totally vicious and totally against freedom of expression of any kind.”
Williams was one of the measures officially entitled a resolution to formally establish a mutual defense compact for universities in the Big Ten Academic Alliance, advocating academic freedom, institutional integrity and research companies.
The resolution states that “recent escalation of politically motivated actions by government agencies poses a serious threat to fundamental principles of higher education in America, including university governance autonomy, the integrity of scientific research and the protection of free speech.” Exercise inappropriate control over academic investigations. ”
The Defense Compact resolution was drafted by the Big Ten Academic Alliance, an organization consisting of more than 12 universities in the Big Ten Conference, including both public and private institutions. Originally known as the Institutional Cooperation Committee, the alliance was established to promote research cooperation and share resources.
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“I don’t think they’re hypocrites, I think they’re liars,” Williams added. “I think what they’re doing is hiding behind a free speech cloak that they don’t believe in, in order to try to control the university environment. It’s a trick. It’s a strategy, and when they say they’re interested in free speech, they demonstrate that they’re most certainly against free speech, so they shouldn’t take them seriously.”
Under the proposal, participating universities will contribute to the Shared Defense Fund to immediately support what they deem to be a legal and political violation. It is unclear that Big Ten universities could support the resolution.
The resolution will also be sent to the leadership of all Big Ten University and their respective governance committees and shared governance bodies, but the president of Rutgers University will “play a leading role in convening the Big Ten academic and legal leadership summit to begin the implementation of this compact.”
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“This is a very politically partisan document,” Williams said. “This is the blame for the wider brush of the Trump administration. Now, certainly, by free speech, they absolutely have the right to do it, but if they do, they will stop being nonpartisan and I will question their tax-free status.”
Many Big Ten universities have historically received federal grants for research from institutions such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy.
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The resolution comes when the Trump administration has critically looked at federally funded universities. In March, the administration cancelled $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University, citing concerns about anti-Semitism on campus following the October 7 attack on Hamas. The action was part of a broader initiative scrutinizing elite universities, particularly due to alleged civil rights violations against Jewish students.
The administration has also shifted its focus to eliminating university diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, banning biological men from women’s sports, consistent with Trump’s executive orders. The Ministry of Education has released a survey of more than 50 universities on February’s racism and allegations of racism challenging scholarships.
Trump also signed an executive order in March that would significantly reduce the size of the Department of Education. The department’s operations have been reduced, but it manages key functions such as Title I funding, Pell grants, student loans, and special education funding.
Jamie Joseph is a US political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering transgender and cultural issues, the departments of education, health and welfare, and state legislative development.
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