The Vanderbilt Faculty Senate, an elected body composed of deans and representative faculty members, has formally opposed entering into a compact with the Trump administration to comply with new directives in exchange for preferential access to funding.
In an emergency meeting last week, the senate passed a resolution that condemned the proposed compact as a likely violation of state and federal law, and an infringement on the constitutional rights of university members.
“The Faculty Senate of Vanderbilt University firmly opposes this Compact as written and calls upon Chancellor (Daniel) Diermeier and the Board of Trust to also reject this Compact outright as well as any similar proposal compromising the mission, values and independence of the University,” the resolution said.
The resolution was enacted with a 30-11 vote with one member abstaining.
The demand that Vanderbilt and eight other elite universities sign onto the so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” whose details were first reported in the Wall Street Journal, has drawn criticism from campus groups and free speech advocates.
The 10-page proposed contract would require the schools to adhere to a number of ideological goals set by the Trump administration. Among them is that campus faculty and employees abstain from actions and speech about off-campus political events, capping foreign student enrollment and a commitment to use “lawful force if necessary,” to combat protests that impede access to campus facilities.
The directives, the resolution said, “”contains provisions antithetical to the missions and traditions of the university” and “endanger(s) the independence and integrity of the university.”
A Vanderbilt spokesperson referred to a statement posted on the university’s X account that said, “we look forward to carefully reviewing the compact and providing meaningful feedback to the administration.”
In addition to Vanderbilt, letters proposing the compact were sent to Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Virginia.
