STURGE: Professors denounce Trump's Compact, want taxpayer money with no strings attached
University professors are denouncing President Donald Trump’s 'Compact of Academic Excellence in Higher Education,' even as they and their institutions collect millions in federal taxpayer funding, a Campus Reform audit found.
The Ivory Tower has a double standard: Universities want federal funding without federal accountability.
That contradiction is now on full display as faculty across elite institutions condemn President Donald Trump’s “Compact of Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
The Compact would give universities preferential access to federal funds if they agree to uphold federal law: Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, Section 117 on foreign funding, and the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action. But to university professors, that sounds like an existential threat.
[RELATED: STURGE: Trump’s ‘Compact for Academic Excellence’ brings law and merit back to campus]
Vanderbilt University Associate Professor of Psychology Lisa Fazio and Dartmouth College Professor of Government Brendan Nyhan co-authored an opinion piece condemning the Compact, calling it the “devil’s bargain” that would make universities “subservient to the whims of the government.”
The real “devil’s bargain” isn’t Trump’s proposal, it’s a higher-ed system that preaches independence, pockets your money, and answers to no one.
That’s the problem. While professors condemn President Trump for merely asking them to follow federal law, they and their institutions collect millions in federal taxpayer funding. They cash in taxpayer dollars but denounce any policy that asks them to follow the law. They want your taxpayer dollars with no strings attached.
According to National Science Foundation records, Fazio received a $506,478 grant for what appears to be a left-wing study on “misinformation.” She used those funds to co-author the publication titled “All the President’s Lies: Repeated False Claims and Public Opinion,” which alleges that Republicans are more susceptible to believe false information due to “Trump’s repetition of misleading claims during his presidency.”
Half a million in taxpayer dollars spent on research attacking Trump voters.
Nyhan has received more than $800,000 in federal funds through the National Science Foundation for more politically charged research that appears to affirm a leftist belief system.
His awards include a $99,997 study in which the goal was to “[improve] communications regarding climate change” and $56,732 to investigate why people believe in “conspiracy theories and other misinformation about health, medicine, and science.”
Nyhan co-led a $199,027 study on “COVID-19 beliefs and attitudes” and a $180,448 study on the public’s perception of voter fraud tied to the 2020 presidential election. Nyhan also received $300,000 for studies on social media algorithms and how humans consume information.
At the institutional level, the hypocrisy is even starker.
The University of Virginia (UVA) Faculty Senate wrote a resolution condemning the Compact, claiming it threatens academic freedom for asking universities to ensure “a broad spectrum of ideological viewpoints” where “no single ideology [is] dominant.” Meanwhile, UVA received nearly $550 million in research awards last fiscal year.
At the University of Arizona, 40 of 49 Faculty Senate members voted to reject the Compact, even as the university collected $250 million in federal funds in fiscal year 2024 and over $430 million in federal research funding the previous year.
[RELATED: NIH gave 8 universities over $12.5 million to study ‘transgender’ mice]
University of Southern California (USC) faculty denounced the proposed agreement during an Academic Senate meeting with an estimated 500 attendees, yet received $1.35 billion in federal funds in fiscal year 2024.
And University of California, Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky went so far as to call the Compact “authoritarian,” yet his own UC system receives more than $17 billion in federal support each year.
If faculty truly believe a Compact that asks them to follow the law is an intolerable intrusion, they’re free to decline the federal grants, contracts, and loans that sustain their research and institutions. But as long as taxpayer dollars bankroll their research, salaries, and facilities, the public has a right to expect compliance with the law and commitment to open inquiry.
Accountability isn’t authoritarian; it’s responsible governance.
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Editorials and op-eds reflect the opinion of the authors and not necessarily that of Campus Reform or the Leadership Institute.
