The ACLU of Rhode Island today sent a letter to Brown University President Christine Paxson condemning the Trump Administration’s new “compact” that would undermine academic freedom and the autonomy of higher education institutions, and urging the university president to “forcefully and publicly reject” the demands contained in the compact. The compact, which was sent to nine universities, lays out a series of conditions from the presidential administration that the institutions have to agree to in order to receive various forms of federal funding.
The ACLU letter states that the requirements would “restrict university employees from speaking out on political issues, limit the enrollment of foreign students, and once again require the university to essentially deny the existence of transgender students.” This new set of demands comes only two months after Brown capitulated and agreed to accept the Trump administration’s discriminatory definition of sex to receive federal funding. In urging President Paxson to publicly and unequivocally reject the “compact,” the ACLU says that the previous agreement with the Trump administration “simply empowered and emboldened the Trump administration to demand more.”