Resisting the Trump Compact - What happened?

I posted elsewhere about how higher education is currently being targeted by the Trump administration and how resilience and opposition have courageously sought to protect education from ideological control. Education has been a general target all the way back to Trump's first term as U.S. President. The general protests of the winter, spring, and summer of 2025 turned to the "No Kings" demonstrations of October 18, 2025. "No Kings" has now spawned subsequent protests that resist the Trump administration Compact, first offered to 9 elite institutions but, when that failed, were then offered to all of U.S. higher education.

Numerous demonstrations took place, with University of California at Berkley and University of Florida as examples. More broadly, there have been "3,700 protest days across 525 campuses" since 2023. What's important among all this momentum is that students acquire a sense of public responsibility. That sense of responsibility has to come with knowledge of media and how to use it. 

In order to help the public understand what the Compact includes, the "No Kings" movement urged follow-up to rallies across the world in a webinar. The "Unpack the Compact" virtual conference on October 27, 2025, was the beginning of a student movement to resist the Compact. Over 1,500 participants were advised about how to organize campus protests with the first on November 7, 2025. A recording of the virtual conference is available and can be accessed by passcode (4G.a?fMA). Summary of the meeting follows:

Cori Bush reminded us that defending freedom starts locally and there is no action too big or small! Mia McIver of the American Association of University Professors showed the compact can threaten academic independence, restrict curriculum, and silence dissent. Tarah Demant of Amnesty International USA walked us through how the compact is an attack on human rights and an authoritarian overreach. Cameron, Co-Founder of S.E.A.T., showed us how they have been resisting nation-wide through walkouts, campus rallies, and other demonstrations against Trump's actions.

Educators who wish to support students in protesting the Trump Compact should spread the word about the November 7 protest movement. Take the links to speak with organizers at Frontline for Freedom and to schedule a campus protest. Faculty, staff, alumni, and retired educators should support students by attending the protests and helping to protect against enforcement efforts designed to silence opposition.

As momentum built toward November 7, an Education Department spokesperson responded, "The Trump Administration is achieving reforms on higher education campuses that conservatives have dreamed about for 50 years. Institutions are once again committed to enforcing federal civil rights laws consistently, they are rooting out DEI and unconstitutional race preferences, and they are acknowledging sex as a biological reality in sports and intimate spaces."

Students have often been the bulwark against unreasonable and abusive institutional and governmental policies. The fact that students are being called to protest Trump's Compact must recognize the heightened risk protesters face in the Trump era. Protesters will be labeled in numerous derogatory ways and may even be threatened with arrest, deportation, or denial of educational benefits. It is the responsibility of all citizens to correct twisted and vengeful narratives and help students find and express their voices.