After being urged to oppose Trump’s ‘loyalty’ compacts, Penn State silent on stance
After being urged by at least one faculty group to reject and denounce higher education compacts like the one pitched to universities by President Donald Trump’s administration, Penn State has not publicly taken a stance on such compacts.
Earlier this month, the administration asked nine universities — Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University — to sign onto a “Compact For Academic Excellence In Higher Education.” It lists a number of things the universities would have to agree to in order to receive priority access to federal funds. Most of the universities have declined the proposal.
Following sending the compact to the nine universities, Trump opened it up to any university, Bloomberg reported.
The Penn State chapter of the American Association of University Professors voted unanimously in support of the national association’s statement urging leadership at universities to oppose compacts and “uphold free expression and academic freedom.”
The chapter sent a letter and the statement to Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi and the board of trustees on Oct. 13, asking them to stand with the universities and communities targeted by the “loyalty compact” — and to not support this compact or ones that may be presented in the future.
“Supporting the compact or any future overreach into Penn State’s admissions, hiring, programs, and curriculum would render Penn State’s mission impossible and destroy academic freedom and free expression of ideas. This compact would hinder the work of faculty, staff, and students that make Penn State one of the top universities in the world,” the letter states.
Three members of Penn State’s strategic communications team did not respond to an inquiry from the Centre Daily Times about the AAUP’s letter or if the university had any interest in signing onto the compact. There was also no response to an email sent to the 38-member board of trustees.
As of Friday afternoon, AAUP had not received a response to its letter from Penn State, Michelle Rodino-Colocino, president of the Penn State AAUP, told the CDT in a phone interview.
“We would like to see a statement from the Penn State president and the board of trustees. We would like to see a statement of support for academic freedom and for the work that faculty and staff do and for the rights of students as well. We would like to see opposition against the loyalty oath. And I welcome a conversation, if they want to have a conversation with me or with members of AAUP, we welcome that,” she said.
The compact would require the schools to limit international student enrollment, require standardized tests for admission, block transgender people from using restrooms or playing in sports that align with their gender identities and other items that align with Trump’s politics, NPR reported.
Trump wrote about the compact in a post on Truth Social, saying “much of Higher Education has lost its way.” He listed some of the things the universities would do if they agreed to the compact.
“They will agree to follow Federal Law, and protect the Civil Rights of ALL Students, Faculty, and Employees on Campuses. They will stop racist Admission Policies, and put an end to unjust and illegal discrimination in Faculty Hiring. These Institutions will commit to High Quality Standards, an Intellectually Open Campus Environment (including the protection of Free Speech and Debate), Institutional Neutrality, major steps toward Affordability for Students, and an end to the entanglement of Foreign Money in the Finances of American Universities.”
The AAUP statement, in collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers, said the offer “stinks of favoritism, patronage, and bribery. It is entirely corrupt.”
It continued to say the “compact would steer tax payer money in ways that violate core principles of US higher education and democracy and cripple innovation. They would reward campuses that toe the party line and punish those that cherish their independence. In doing so, it would commit the very viewpoint discrimination it claims to redress.”
Seven of the nine initial universities declined the compact. The national AAUP came out early with its statement against the compact, Rodino-Colocino said, and since the majority of those universities have not signed on, it shows that taking action collectively early does have an impact on the outcome.
Penn State AAUP will participate in the National Day of Action on Nov. 7, she said, where they will have a short rally at Old Main and gather support for unionization efforts university wide — including the Penn State Faculty Alliance, the Coalition of Graduate Employees at Penn State, and Teamsters Local 8 — as well as support for the AAUP’s advocacy chapter.
“What we are seeing is an existential threat against higher education. It is a sectoral attack against the sector of higher ed. So all workers and all even students and their families, and really, our communities that are home to the campuses, are under attack,” Rodino-Colocino said. “And I mean, I can’t even think of an industry or a place that’s not affected by higher ed, that doesn’t depend on higher ed institutions to educate and train people in the community. And so it’s really an attack on the entire country coming from within, coming from the federal government.”
Publicly, Penn State has largely been quiet on the many attacks on higher education from the Trump administration. The AAUP has been fighting for academic freedom since 1915, she said, but the “fight has never been tougher.”
“That threat is so pronounced, and we don’t have a university administration that’s been going to bat for us, that’s been standing up for our academic freedom, that’s given unqualified assurance that our academic freedom will continue to be protected,” she said. “So that’s something we, the faculty, have to do, and that’s why we need to join with other organizations across the campus and the state and country that is doing that work. We’ve got to advocate where there’s an advocacy vacuum. When the administration is remaining silent, we have to speak.”
