Universities Must Reject Trump Admin 'Loyalty Oath' Compacts

The Trump administration's offer to give preferential treatment to colleges and universities that court government favor stinks of favoritism, patronage, and bribery in exchange for allegiance to a partisan ideological agenda. It is entirely corrupt. White House Policy Strategist May Mailman reportedly hopes that "a lot of schools see that" government control of their institution is "highly reasonable." In reality, adherence to Mailman's loyalty oath would usher in a new era of thought policing in American higher education. Mailman's compacts 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.

The AAUP and AFT urge all college and university governing boards, campus administrations, academic disciplinary organizations, and higher education trade groups to reject such collusion with the Trump administration and to stand firmly on the side of free expression and higher education as the anchor of opportunity for all. Mailman's compact would permit unqualified bureaucrats and partisan hacks to rule over matters such as college admissions and classroom discussion. The federal government should not, under any circumstances, dictate who goes to college, what can be researched,or learned, and what can or can't be the subject of critical academic inquiry. A Mailman compact would turn a university administration into a weapon of the executive branch.

All nine university governing boards and presidents must stand together to oppose Mailman's "loyalty oath" compacts. To the leaders of Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown University, and the University of Virginia: Acquiescing to a Mailman compact would be a profound betrayal of your students, staff, faculty, the public, higher education, and our shared democracy-one that would irretrievably tarnish your personal reputation and compromise your institution's legacy. We urge you not to capitulate and not to negotiate but to unite now in defense of democracy and higher education.