The faculty senates in the Big Ten Academic Alliance are creating a “mutual defense compact” to fight against President Trump’s ongoing attacks on higher education.  

The faculty senate of Rutgers began the initiative, passing a resolution on April 6 to establish the compact among the Big Ten’s 18 universities.

“Be it resolved that, the Rutgers University Senate urges the President of Rutgers University to formally propose and help establish a Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) among all members of the Big Ten Academic Alliance,” the resolution said.  

The resolution says it is in response to the Trump administration’s “legal, financial and political” attacks on academic freedom and the missions of universities.  

Rutgers’s resolution has since been joined by at least four faculty senates at other Big Ten schools, with Michigan State University becoming the latest on Tuesday.

In the Rutger’s resolution, it says schools that participate should be willing to make legal counsel, experts and public affairs offices available to any institution that is facing pressure from the Trump administration.  

A fund would also be created to provide “immediate and strategic support” to universities.  

“Senators have a moral and ethical responsibility to review matters that are impacting anything related to university level, academic freedom, curriculum, policies, etc, and if they see any kind of dangers of infraction on those fronts, then it’s the Senate’s responsibility to collect that information and have a pretty robust conversation about it, and then take a vote on it and bring it to the President’s attention,” Lucille Foster, chair of Rutgers’s University Senate, told The Hill. 

Resolutions by faculty senates are non-binding but Foster argues at universities you want to start “on a micro level and then work your way up.” 

The “administration is in support of our starting on a micro level with the Big 10 senates,” Foster added. “I think very few successful things happen on a macro level, right? I think, if you’re in charge, if you’re a CEO or a president, you can make very sweeping motions, but that isn’t the way most universities want to work. You really want to start on a ground level.” 

The University of Nebraska, Indiana University and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have also adopted the resolution.

But there has been some hesitation from other universities out of fear of retaliation from the administration, with some pointing out it could be more difficult for those in red states to participate.  

Rutgers will be hosting a meeting in May and encouraging anyone with hesitations to come and ask questions.  

“It’s an unrealistic bar to think that everybody you will get 100 percent support, right? That’s unrealistic. But I think that, quietly, there were a lot of schools that had contacted me and said, ‘I don’t know if we can sign on, but we’d love to participate in the conversation,’ and that, to me, is successful.” Foster said. 

“I think as long as you’re in the room and you feel like you have a voice and you’re being heard, and I, again, both sides … I’m looking for bipartisan support. I’m not just looking for one side of the conversation,” she added.  

Trump has made colleges and universities a prime target of his second administration, going after their federal funding, seeking to purge diversity programs and seeking to deport an unknown number of international students.