Duke students protest Trump Higher Ed compact
The Duke Climate Coalition and Sunrise Movement recently staged a protest calling on the school to refuse to sign the Trump administration’s ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.’
Posters for the event claimed that the compact would threaten ‘DEI in admittance and hiring’ and ‘affinity groups and services.’
Left-wing student groups at Duke University recently staged a protest against the Trump administration’s efforts to instate common-sense reforms on America’s campuses.
A collection of student groups, including Sunrise Duke, Duke Climate Coalition, Migrant Roots Media - Duke Chapter, Duke Jewish Solidarity, and Duke Divest Coalition, held a “Duke Rise Up!” rally on Nov. 7 against the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
Sunrise Duke began circulating a petition prior to the demonstration, which accused Trump of “trying to blackmail Duke to let him and his unqualified bureaucrats run [Duke].” The petitions garnered slightly more than 100 signatures at the time of this article’s publication.
The protest itself drew approximately 25 participants, according to the school newspaper, The Duke Chronicle. Duke had over 17,000 enrolled students as of fall 2024, according to university figures.
[RELATED: UT Austin students stage protest against Trump compact]
One student summarized the protesters’ complaints in a speech, saying, “The TLDR is if colleges accept these demands, they will have to limit international student enrollment, exclude transgender students and attack affinity groups, all while silencing student free speech.”
An advertisement for the rally posted to Instagram called the compact a “Loyalty Oath” and claimed that it is “a direct attack on our academic freedom, our safety, and our democracy.”
The flyer demanded Duke “reject the compact” and called on the school to protect “DEI in admittance and hiring,” “[a]ffinity groups and services,” “LGBTQ+ students,” and more.
Another Instagram reel showed several posters used during the rally, including one that read “$25/HR LIVING WAGE.”
The compact does not directly affect student pay, but rather aims to curtail liberal excesses on campus and protect conservative students.
The school has not commented on the compact publicly, but Duke President Vincent Price called its terms “highly problematic” during a meeting last month, according to The Duke Chronicle.
[RELATED: Valley Forge becomes first college to join Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence]
The agreement would offer funding opportunities to schools in exchange for enforcing a number of policies, including cracking down on anti-conservative bias and violence, protecting women’s spaces, and utilizing a merit-based admissions system, Campus Reform previously reported.
The Trump administration originally offered the compact to nine higher education institutions, not including Duke, but has since expanded the offer to schools nationwide.
Since the offer and expansion, leftist students have staged protests at schools across the country. Vanderbilt University, for instance, saw over 300 demonstrators descend on campus to protest the compact, Campus Reform reported.
All relevant parties have been contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
