Trump “Compact” Imperils Students, Academic Freedom
The Trump administration has announced a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that would require schools to attack marginalized students in exchange for federal funding.
The “compact” pressures all colleges to unlawfully bar transgender people from restrooms and athletic programs, limit international student enrollment, and eliminate affinity spaces and groups like Black student unions. This compact also promotes censorship and retaliation against campus activism by pressuring schools to crack down on student and faculty speech that does not align with the administration’s extremist political ideology.
In response, Emma Grasso Levine, Senior Manager of Title IX Policy and Programs at the leading Title IX advocacy project Know Your IX (a survivor- and youth-led program of Advocates for Youth), issued the following statement:
“With this so-called “compact,” the Trump administration has escalated its weaponization of federal funding to advance its transphobic, anti-immigrant, authoritarian agenda.
These policies seek to bully academic institutions into abdicating their responsibility to their students and imperiling young peoples’ safety and right to an education. The “compact” is a dangerous example of government control at the expense of academic freedom. In short, the Trump administration is brokering a coercive deal: in exchange for preferential treatment and federal funding opportunities, schools must throw marginalized youth under the bus and their core values out the window.
Alongside civil rights organizations and higher education associations, Advocates for Youth applauds the schools that have rejected this compact and refused to bow to authoritarianism. We urge all college and university leaders to stand in solidarity with LGBTQ youth, youth of color, and all students who will be harmed by the compact’s policies.”
—
Emma Grasso Levine is also available for interviews to discuss the weaponization of Title IX and how the Trump administration’s actions impact student survivors and organizers.
###
Advocates for Youth is a 501(c)3 organization that champions efforts that help young people make informed decisions about their reproductive and sexual health. Advocates for Youth boldly advocates for a more positive and realistic approach to adolescent sexual health, focusing its work on young people ages 14-24 in the U.S. and around the globe.
For Immediate Release: October 23, 2025
Contact: Eleanor Naiman, [email protected]