The University of Michigan
University Senate
Motion #110325-3

Resolution to Reject Participation in the “Compact for Academic Excellence
in Higher Education”

Whereas on 1 October 2025 the Trump Administration presented ten conditions on federal funding to a group of peer universities as part of a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” These conditions would

impose ham-handed federal government interference in admission decisions; 

require systematic surveillance of faculty members’ political views; 

mandate perverse changes to university governance structures and the closure of units deemed ideologically suspect;

require suppression of campus protest and enforcement of specific definitions of sex, gender, and gender identity;

limit international student enrollments; and

require the University to screen out students who hold suspect views; 

Whereas, as leading constitutional scholars Robert Post and Thomas Ginsburg have explained, the “Compact” “imposes government orthodoxy” by seeking to “supplant intellectual competence with explicitly political criteria, to be determined by a political agency”;

Whereas entering into the “Compact” would put a university at risk of losing federal benefits to which it is legally entitled, based on the whims of the incumbent federal administration;

Whereas the “Compact” has been condemned by individuals and institutions across the political spectrum, including former Republican Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander, the libertarian Cato Institute’s Walter Olson, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the American Association of University Professors, and the American Association of Colleges and Universities; 

Be it resolved that the University of Michigan faculty opposes any capitulation by  University administration to these or similar demands that undermine intellectual rigor, dynamic pedagogy, research excellence, and our proud tradition of intellectual leadership;

And be it further resolved that the University of Michigan faculty opposes any capitulation by University administration to these or similar demands that undermine individual constitutional rights, faculty governance, institutional autonomy, and our firm commitment to academic freedom;

And be it further resolved that the University of Michigan faculty commends the leadership of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Virginia, Dartmouth College, and other institutions that have rejected the compact. 

Movant: Julian Davis Mortenson, James G. Phillipp Professor of Law, UM Law School

Supporting Members:

Samuel R. Bagenstos, Frank G. Millard Professor of Law, UM Law School, Arlene Susan Kohn Professor of Social Policy, Ford School of Public Policy 

Richard Primus, Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor of Law, UM Law School

Endorsed by the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs (SACUA) on October 20, 2025

Approved by the University Senate on November 6, 2025

Results: Yes, 2978 (93.0%); 225 (7.0%); Abstain 435 - Motion PASSED