The Trump administration sent letters to Vanderbilt and eight other universities on Oct. 1 asking them to sign a 10-point “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” In response, Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United created a petition titled “Vanderbilt — Don’t Sign Trump’s Fascist Compact” to encourage Vanderbilt administration not to sign.  

The petition has been signed by over 800 Vanderbilt community members as of publication.  

“This compact isn’t a policy proposal — it’s a power grab designed to silence dissent and enforce a dangerous, exclusionary ideology,” a representative of Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United said in a statement to The Hustler. “Vanderbilt cannot solve its challenges by surrendering to a bully. The administration must stand with the students, staff and faculty who make this university run and unequivocally reject this attack on our community.”  

Junior Soren Olsen signed the petition and shared that he believes this is Vanderbilt’s opportunity to publicly commit to its stance of institutional neutrality. 

“Vanderbilt has been given a golden opportunity to affirm its outspoken positions of institutional neutrality and free expression on the national stage,” Olsen said. “Despite the potential dangers of denying the Trump administration, the university has no other choice. Bending the knee would be a betrayal of everything the university claims to stand for.” 

Vanderbilt Student Government included a brief statement about the compact in their Oct. 6 email newsletter sent to all Vanderbilt students. In the statement, VSG included a form for students to fill out and express their thoughts on the compact.  

“It is an incredibly interesting time to be a student at Vanderbilt. Our experiences at Vanderbilt could be significantly altered by the decision our administration makes,” the newsletter reads. “We must have our voices heard. Our student body must stand together to ensure that our university’s leadership makes a decision that reflects our opinions.” 

Vanderbilt’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors additionally released a statement condemning the compact.  

They described the compact as a threat and said its “attempted coercion continues a pattern of ongoing political interference into higher education.” It states that the requirements of the compact would expose Vanderbilt to a threat to academic freedom and its core identity. In the statement, they also discuss how decisions about university operations should be made jointly by the faculty in accordance with the shared principles created by the university. 

“We cannot sincerely ask our students to ‘dare to grow’ in the environment of fear and mistrust that this compact would produce in our community,” the statement reads.