Trump’s academic excellence compact triggers faculty resistance in Colorado

Faculty across Colorado’s public universities are advancing a “mutual academic defense compact” to collectively resist federal education policies developed under President Donald Trump. 

On Nov. 16, the University of Colorado System Faculty Council voted 61 percent in favor of adopting the compact, joining Colorado State University in Fort Collins, the University of Denver, Western Colorado University, and Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. 

University of Colorado President Todd Saliman told Campus Reform that academic freedom’s ”robust implementation is what makes us a great university. It allows the type of challenging education we want for each student, the compelling scholarship, creativity and research we want for every faculty member and the significant impact we want for our state, nation and world.”

Saliman also said that the university has been “laser focused” on engaging in ways that are the most effective in continuing the school’s mission, it’s commitment to academic freedom.

[RELATED: UCLA faculty oppose efforts to ban DEI statements in hiring]

Saliman also addressed the legal dimension of university cooperation noting, “In terms of the legal realm specifically, CU is already part of a collective of 23 public institutions in Colorado who are represented by the Attorney General’s Office. As part of an existing agreement with the State, CU provides funding to that office.”

The agreement aims to coordinate resistance to federal policies that faculty claim threaten academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Faculty leaders say the growing coalition reflects the seriousness with which educators statewide view these reforms.

The compact emerged in response to the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, a proposal encouraging institutions to certify compliance on issues like campus speech, political diversity, gender in athletics, admissions, and student services. 

Faculty interviewed by Chalkbeat Colorado argued that such reforms could open the door to political interference in university governance. 

[RELATED: Faculty vow to resist new conservative board reforms at New College]

Chalkbeat Colorado reported that the University of Colorado Boulder changed signage for all-gender restrooms, while the University of Denver discontinued a program serving marginalized student populations. Faculty cited these changes as evidence that institutions may already be adjusting to expected federal directives.

Western Colorado University’s administration stated it “will not waver in upholding our commitment to academic freedom, integrity of research, and freedom of inquiry, with or without a declared compact.”

Critics argue that the “mutual academic defense compact” represents an ideological backlash against attempts to reform higher education. Notably, it makes no mention of promoting intellectual diversity or safeguarding conservative speech—longstanding concerns raised by student groups and free speech advocacy organizations such as the Young America’s Foundation and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.