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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 19h

That's the faculty's position, but sadly, faculty have very little if any control over big-picture strategic decisions at a university. Administrators (presidents, provosts, VPs) and Boards are the deciders. Alumni and donor voices can be much more powerful.

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 19h

While the faculty senate at U of Arizona opposes it (as several other faculty bodies at these schools have), unfortunately faculty have very little if any control over the big-picture strategic decisions of a university. The administrators and boards of these schools are the deciders.

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Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 21h

Longhorns have an open letter they can sign here

bit.ly/nodealtexas

A flyer reading “Keep Texas Free” with a picture of a state of Bevo on the strip

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 22h

Exactly. If it takes you a week to think about how to respond to this, something is wrong. Their lawyers' legal reply might take time -- but to publicly say "We won't sign and we won't negotiate" should come faster than this.

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 22h

If you are an alum of:

Vanderbilt
UVA
UT Austin
U of Southern California
Dartmouth
Brown
MIT
U Penn
U Arizona

Your alma mater is RIGHT NOW weighing the costs and benefits of giving up its independence and abandoning academic freedom. SPEAK UP NOW:

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STAND WITH YOUR SCHOOL: Trump attacks 9 universities. Sign the alumni petition now.

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools the federal government just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freed...

alumni.controlshift.app

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 22h

Its been a week since nine schools received Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Ed..."

The compact plainly demands ideological control of university operations by the federal government.

GUESS HOW MANY UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS HAVE SAID THEY WON'T SIGN?
🦗🦗🦗

#edusky #academicsky
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STAND WITH YOUR SCHOOL: Trump attacks 9 universities. Sign the alumni petition now.

Are you an alum from one of the 9 schools the federal government just attacked? Sign this alumni petition now to support your school, defend democracy, and build a grassroots movement for campus freed...

alumni.controlshift.app

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 1d

State government doing the right thing.
Faculty senates passing resolutions.
Students and alumni saying "nope".

So why have ZERO of these nine college administrations stated they won't sign the "compact" yet?

#academicsky #edusky

Matthew Kirschenbaum @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social · 1d

Virginia State Senate Dems just brought down fire and fury regarding the “Compact,” notifying the President and Rector that UVA would lose ALL STATE APPROPRIATIONS if it signs and cedes the University to “federal political control.” Notably, their letter directly restates points made here by @siva.

Siva @sivav.bsky.social · 1d

The “compact” for higher ed is an unserious document written by unserious people from a position of spectacular ignorance. No one should take it seriously. Sadly, my bosses are taking it seriously.

newrepublic.com/article/2013...

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 1d

Dear Journalists,

PLEASE stop saying that Trump's #highered "Compact for Academic Excellence..." offers "preferred treatment" to signatories. That is false. Instead, it promises to revoke all funding, visa approvals, and tax-exemptions from any who don't agree to its outrageous fascist demands.

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Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

Rosa Lafer-Sousa @rosalafersousa.bsky.social · 6d

🚨 Are you an alum from one of the 9 universities Trump is attempting to extort right now?

✍️ Sign this petition to defend your university, free speech, and democracy. I signed.

This is a time for courage, not capitulation.
#JustSayNo #Compact 🧪🧠🧬

(context in thread)

Trump attacks 9 universities: Sign the alumni petition to defend your school now

Are you an alum outraged by Trump's attacks on universities? Defend your school now by signing this alumni petition in support of these 9 universities as well as campus communities across America.

alumni.controlshift.app

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 2d

Bill Murray in Ghostbusters in the scene where he says "Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!"

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 2d

I'm concerned this statement doesn't actually state that Dartmouth won't sign...

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Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

Lisa Fazio @lkfazio.bsky.social · 2d

New from me and @brendannyhan.bsky.social

Why Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence" is a devil's bargain and should be rejected in all forms

www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Trump sent a 'compact' to our universities. They should reject this devil's bargain.

Any institution that yields to these broad and intrusive demands would forever be subservient to the whims of the government.

www.msnbc.com

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 2d

How it's going:

Last week, 9 colleges received gov't demands to abolish departments that "belittle" conservative ideas, survey and report on faculty ideologies, enforce belief in only 2 genders, and report on int'l students.

So far ZERO have stated outright refusal to sign.

#edusky #academicsky

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 3d

It's getting harder for all of us to see through the fog now.
Remember what is real.

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 3d

He might believe some of it, but I think he mainly doesn't care whether what he says is true.

This is a feature of authoritarian regimes -- the leader dictates reality. Trump is happy to play that role, creating uncertainty and fear, undermining the press, and making truth itself bend to his will.

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 4d

So agree with you -- the media coverage on this has been SO wrong it makes me worry that many journalists have not even read the document, even though it's only a few pages long and is very easy to understand!

Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 6d

News coverage of the Trump administration's proposed "compact" with universities has been, so far, shockingly bad.

I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 4d

This is so true. Media coverage is describing this as a voluntary agreement to receive "preferential access" to federal "benefits".

All FALSE!

The document is only a few pages long, READ IT. It is an existential threat to revoke all funding, financial aid, tax benefits, and even visas.

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 6d

News coverage of the Trump administration's proposed "compact" with universities has been, so far, shockingly bad.

I hate to pick on NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny, who's usually a solid reporter, but almost every important thing I heard her say this morning about the proposed "compact" was false.

Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 5d

This IS a stick.

IDK where media headlines calling this a "deal" for "preferential access" to "benefits" are coming from, but that is FALSE. Document directly threatens to crush universities that don't comply by revoking all federal funding, visas, tax benefits...

Universities still MUST refuse.

www.washingtonexaminer.com

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Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

Patrick Jackson @pehjackson.bsky.social · 6d

UVA Faculty Senate passed a resolution strongly opposing the Trump “Compact.” We, at least, remain committed to the historic values and mission of the university.

Resolution Opposing the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education"
WHEREAS the United States Secretary of Education has requested that the University of Virginia enter into a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”, and
WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions antithetical to the mission and traditions of the University, and
WHEREAS the Compact contains provisions which endanger the independence and integrity of the University, and
WHEREAS the compact likely violates state and federal law, and infringes upon the constitutional rights of members of the University community, and
WHEREAS the University of Virginia exemplifies American academic values of the highest standard, including universal right to free speech and the cultivation of academic freedom; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University of Virginia firmly opposes this Compact as written and calls upon Interim President Mahoney and the Board of Visitors to also reject this Compact outright as well as any similar proposal compromising the mission, values, and independence of the University.

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 5d

Would you agree to FORMALLY SURVEY THE IDEOLOGIES OF FACULTY IN EVERY DEPARTMENT OF YOUR COLLEGE, and to "transform or abolish" any that "belittle" "conservative ideas"?

That's what Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence." demands.

#edusky #academicsky

www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

" Signatories commit themselves to revising governance structures as necessary to create such an environment, including but not limited to transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas. Given the importance of academic freedom to the marketplace of ideas, signatories shall adopt a policy protecting academic freedom in classrooms, teaching, research, and scholarship. Such policies also shall recognize that academic freedom is not absolute, and universities shall adopt policies that prevent discriminatory, threatening, harassing, or other behaviors that abridge the rights of other members of the university community. Signatories commit to rigorous, good faith, empirical assessment of a broad spectrum of viewpoints among faculty, students, and staff at all levels and to sharing the results of such assessments with the public; and to seek such a broad spectrum of viewpoints not just in the university as a whole, but within every field, department, school, and teaching unit. "

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Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴 @wamsleylab.bsky.social · 6d

"It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education in America requires that every university reject it. If any schools capitulate, the pressure will be enormous on all to fold. The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort..."

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 6d

Hear! effing Hear!

[Gift link]

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 7d

Good. This is the way.

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Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

KP @gokp.bsky.social · 7d

I know it's Texas, and we left bc I had a pretty solid idea of what was coming down the pike, but this is still a brutal kick in the gut to see the state's flagship university and my alma mater "honored" and "enthusiastic" to cement its place in history as a fascist collaborator.

Screenshot of a news article. Date: October 2, 2025. Headline: "UT named in Trump's new higher education funding compact." Body of the text: "The Trump administration has selected the University of Texas at Austin as one of nine schools eligible for federal funding advantages if it agrees to cap international student enrollment, recognize only two genders, freeze tuition for five years, and protect conservative speech under a new 'Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.'"

Screenshot from an article about the fascist collaborators that reads: "UT System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife said in a statement shared first with the American-Statesman on Thursday that the system is 'honored' to be selected and is 'enthusiastically' working with UT to review the demands."

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Reposted by Erin J. Wamsley 🧠📈😴

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 7d

The most effective way to oppose this political takeover is collective action from the academic community. If the first universities that sign Trump contracts face strong academic boycotts- no talks, no manuscript reviews, no interviews of graduates- that should dissuade others from signing.

AAUP chapter @UT Austin @utaustinaaup.bsky.social · 8d

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ... UT Austin is one of the 9 schools offered a deal: accede to White House demands and get funding priority

Exclusive | White House Asks Colleges to Sign Sweeping Agreement to Get Funding Advantage

An initial round of nine schools is being asked to sign a wide-ranging accord.

www.wsj.com

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