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By Todd Wolfson, Daniel Martinez-HoSang, Jan Hochadel, Randi Weingarten
American Association of University Professors, American Federation of Teachers
The AAUP, AFT Connecticut, and the national AFT call on Yale University to reject any negotiated settlement with the Trump administration that would compromise academic freedom, shared governance, due process, or institutional independence. Yale has legal and moral obligations to comply with civil rights law and to protect students, faculty, staff, and patients from discrimination, but those obligations cannot be fulfilled through a closed-door agreement that gives federal officials continuing leverage over admissions, hiring, curriculum, research, medical practice, campus speech, student discipline, or faculty governance.
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For the good of the Nation, university leadership must seize this occasion to drive essential reforms—a process some began by adopting positions of institutional neutrality and improving policies related to campus protests. Before the end of 2026, I call on every postsecondary institution to describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, and national service—commitments that make our universities a bedrock institution of the American republic.
Now the administration is back with Compact 2.0, formally titled "A National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards." It includes some rhetorical flourishes intended to make it seem less threatening to teaching, learning and research. But make no mistake: It once again asks colleges and universities to align themselves with a far-right agenda at the expense of students’ education and the public’s well-being.
