The charter requires signatories to commit to “transforming or eliminating institutional units that punish, belittle, and even provoke violence against conservative ideas,” while also targeting trans student-athletes and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.
“Attacks on higher education are attacks on truth, freedom, and our future. We organize to protect universities as spaces for learning, not control—to liberate, not censor.” He said Brianne Davelier, a student organizer at Public Citizen, is among the advocacy groups and labor unions supporting the Student Rising movement that was behind Friday’s demonstrations.
Protesters at Philadelphia Community College He stressed That “higher education research saves lives.” Protesters carried Duke University Signs Which called for the protection of academic freedom and transgender students. About 10 miles away, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, they held up a sign reading He reads“Standing for Students | Rejecting the Trump Deal.”
Professors from multiple schools came together for a rally at Central Connecticut State University, according to Connecticut mail.
“The agreement would require universities to submit to a government surveillance and policing system designed to abolish administrations that the government disapproves of, promote certain views over others, and restrict the ability of university employees to express themselves on any major issue of the day,” said James Bhandari Alexander, a professor at Yale Law School and a member of the executive committee of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
The Arab American League, which is also part of the coalition supporting the protest movement, He said On social media on Friday: “Trump and Mark Rowan’s loyalty oath agreement is [trash]!! Out with the billionaires and autocrats in higher education! Our universities belong to students and workers in higher education!”
The demonstrators urged their school leaders to not only reject the Trump Charter — which some universities have already done publicly — but also to focus on other priorities for their campus communities.
At the University of Kansas, Professor Barbara Bichlmeyer certain Last month for University of Daily Kansan Kuwait University will not sign the agreement. However, students were still demonstrating on Friday.
“They said ‘no’ but that’s the minimum.” He said Cameron Wren, a leader in the KU chapters of the Sunrise Movement and the Young Democratic Socialists of America. “We hope that the administration will listen to us and at least try to cooperate with us on some of our demands.”
according to University of Daily KansanGroups are also pushing for divestment from fossil fuels, Ren said. Improvements in campus maintenanceand remove Limitations of gender ideology“.
Some schools refused to sign the charter but reached separate agreements with the Trump administration. as Guardian I mentioned Friday:
At Brown University in Rhode Island, one of the first institutions to do so Reach a settlement With the Trump administration earlier this year – passersby were invited to endorse a sign listing a series of demands by dipping their hands in paint and leaving their mark, while a group of faculty members nearby gave a lecture on the history of authoritarianism.
“Trump came into our community believing that we could be bullied into taking away our freedom,” said Simon Aaron, a sophomore and co-president of Brown Rise Up. “He was wrong.”
Brown isn’t the only Ivy League school to strike a deal with Trump; The same goes for Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, the alma maters of both Rowan and Trump. Cornell University followed suit on Friday amid nationwide demonstrations.
“November 7 is just the beginning,” said Caden Ouimet, another student organizer with Public Citizen. “We are building a movement of students, faculty, and campus staff to demand that our colleges not comply with the Trump regime and the authoritarian Campus Charter.”
The organizer added, “We know that in order to completely overcome tyranny, we must overcome the material conditions that led to its emergence.” “That is why we seek not only to defeat Trump, but to win a vision of affordability, security, and freedom for our generation — both in higher education and in our democracy.”
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