The arguments–legal and policy–against Trump’s proposed university compact (which has now been offered to every university) are clear. But two more:
• Joey Fishkin in Inside Higher Ed points out that the administration’s shift from threatening to strip money for non-compliant schools (forcing schools to make a deal) to offering money to compliant schools (requesting that schools make a deal) has helped overcome the collective-action problem by flipping the default. He says “collective action does not necessarily require affirmative acts like banding together to file a lawsuit (although several are warranted). Collective action can simply take the form of nonacquiescence. All university leaders need to do is … nothing.”
• Genevieve Lakier (Chicago) and Veena Dubal (UC Irvine) authored a draft letter on behalf of the AAUP outlining the First Amendment problems, designed to present to university general counsel and request that they formally reject the compact.