Will the UA stand up or sit down?

The deadline to sign a compact with Trump is fast approaching.

Welcome back to the Education Agenda!

We’ve got a high-stakes game of chicken playing out in Southern Arizona as the University of Arizona debates whether to sign a deal that could shape the university’s future for decades to come.

Luckily, we have an easy way for you to stay up to date! All you have to do is click that button and we’ll do the rest.

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It’s not a great time to be in charge of the University of Arizona.

In the coming weeks, officials at the UA and eight other universities will have to decide whether to stand up to the Trump administration or submit to a laundry list of political demands.

It’s an awkward position to be in. Each university has millions of dollars in federal funding at stake, not to mention the risk of antagonizing a president hell-bent on using federal powers to remake universities.

If the universities agree to follow Trump’s political agenda and sign the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” they’ll get preferential treatment for federal funding, along with perks for university officials like invitations to White House events.

They also might buy themselves a little breathing room as the Trump administration continues its onslaught against higher education.

That onslaught began as soon as Trump was inaugurated in January. Since then, federal officials have hammered universities like Columbia, Harvard and the University of Virginia, while pushing universities across the country to get rid of their DEI policies and basically banish even the idea of being transgender from campuses.

But signing the compact has its costs, too.

The UA is in Tucson, where progressive politics reign supreme and locals have a lot of practice getting organized.

Just look at what happened when Amazon Web Services tried to build a massive data center on the outskirts of Tucson. Non-disclosure agreements kept the public in the dark and local groups helped kill the plan (at least the first iteration of it).

And don’t forget the Tesla dealership protests earlier this year got started in Tucson.

Plus, all seven members of the Tucson City Council called for the UA to reject the compact last week, and the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to do the same yesterday. So there’s ample pressure on the UA from local elected officials.

Even if the UA signs the compact, there’s still a risk of losing out on federal funding.

If a professor lets a transgender person use the bathroom of their choice, or ties the history of slavery a little too tightly to the present day, then the UA might have to pay back all the federal funding it got that year.

And there’s no guarantee that signing the compact will amount to anything more than a brief respite from the Trump administration.

The clock is ticking. Universities have until October 20 to provide “limited” feedback on the compact offer and all deals must be signed by November 21.

In the meantime, officials at these universities are scrambling to figure out what to do, faculty groups are pushing them to reject the deal and students are protesting on campus.

Facing the music

Only one university so far, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, publicly said they wouldn’t take the deal.

MIT President Sally Kornbluth rejected the compact in a letter she wrote to Trump officials on Friday.

The compact “includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution,” Kornbluth wrote. “And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

At the UA, officials sent out a terse statement right after they were offered the compact on October 1, saying they were reviewing the details.

On Thursday, UA President Suresh Garimella issued an update to the university community, but stopped well short of saying whether the UA would sign the compact.

“We recognize that this proposal has generated a wide range of reactions and perspectives within our community and beyond,” Garimella wrote. “Working with the Arizona Board of Regents, we are thoroughly reviewing the compact to understand its full scope and implications. We are also engaging shared governance leaders representing faculty, staff and students, and other leaders across the state and nation to gather their input.”

So far, that “engaging shared governance leaders” has veered toward a whole lot of “don’t sign it.”

On Monday, the UA Faculty Senate approved a resolution opposing the compact, with 40 votes in support and eight against.

Their main complaint was that the compact was basically extortion. They were also worried about putting a cap on international students, as the compact demands, and a recent decision to close the UA’s micro-campuses in China after federal officials flagged the program.

Yesterday, the Associated Students of the University of Arizona held a meeting to condemn the compact (our colleagues at the Tucson Agenda have all the details in today’s edition).

And the United Campus Workers CWA Local 7065 has a “teach-in” about the compact planned for today.

Treading carefully

Similar scenarios are playing out at several of the other universities that were offered the compact, but they each have their own set of pressures to deal with.

At Dartmouth University, more than half the school’s faculty members signed a petition asking school officials not to sign the compact.

Government professor Russell Muirhead said Dartmouth should take a note from MIT about how to respond.

“The MIT president’s letter rejecting the compact explicitly underlines MIT’s ‘service to the nation,’” Muirhead wrote. “That is instructive, and we should follow her lead. Unless we succeed at explaining how what we do serves the country, large numbers of our fellow citizens may question why their tax dollars underwrite institutions like Dartmouth.”

At the University of Southern California, they’re in an even tighter jam than the UA.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs hasn’t said much about the compact yet. But California Gov. Gavin Newsom came out swinging. He said any school that took the deal would lose out on state funding.

Democratic lawmakers in Virginia took a similar tack after the Trump administration offered the compact to the University of Virginia. They called the deal “political extortion” and warned that “if the University of Virginia signs this compact, there will be significant consequences in future Virginia budget cycles.”

A previous pressure campaign from the Trump administration over DEI programs forced out University of Virginia President James Ryan in June. Ryan’s replacement told the campus community it would be “difficult to agree to certain provisions” of the compact.

The University of Pennsylvania is also caught between state and federal officials. Two Pennsylvania Democratic state representatives want to block colleges that sign the compact from receiving state funding.

Like the University of Virginia, Penn already was in Trump’s crosshairs. The Trump administration suspended $175 million in funding until the university agreed to block transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

Iowa lawmakers are moving in the opposite direction. The Trump administration didn’t invite any Iowa schools to sign the compact (although Trump officials said this was just the first round of invites), but two Republican lawmakers in Iowa sent a letter to the Iowa Board of Regents asking them to join the compact as soon as possible.

Shortly after the compact offer was sent to the University of Texas-Austin, Kevin Eltife, the chairman of the UT system, said UT schools were “honored” to be included. Still, about 200 students chanted “do not sign” in front of a UT administration building on Monday.

At Brown University, officials tangled with the Trump administration for months over federal research funding until the two sides reached an agreement this summer. Then Brown officials got the compact offer, which prompted them to hold a confidential executive session last week.

Brown University President Christina H. Paxson said on Friday they hadn’t reached a decision yet.

“In this moment, I feel strongly that it is most helpful to hear from members of our community,” Paxson wrote. “We need to decide, as a community, how or whether to respond to the invitation to provide comments.”

At Vanderbilt University, more than 900 students, faculty and staff signed a petition titled “Vanderbilt-Don’t Sign Trump’s Fascist Compact” and the Faculty Senate passed a resolution last Wednesday by a 30-11 vote to, you guessed it, oppose the compact.

“It would put academic freedom under the authority of the federal government, in a manner reminiscent of the Red Scares of the 1930s through 60s, in which universities, under pressure from the federal government, demanded loyalty oaths and fired or expelled students and faculty suspected of being sympathetic to the Communist cause,” Professor Jonathan Gilligan told the student newspaper, the Vanderbilt Hustler.

While all these universities figure out what to do, they might not have to face the decision as a small group for much longer. Bloomberg reported on Monday that the Trump administration plans to offer the compact to every university in the country.

Guess what we’re all gonna need if that happens? A whole lot of good education reporting.

In an era of political gridlock and economic uncertainty, a new Education Forward Arizona poll shows something rare: growing bipartisan support for postsecondary education.

For the third straight year, voters across party lines back the state’s Achieve60AZ goal of ensuring 60% of working-age Arizonans hold a degree or credential by 2030. They also endorse elected leaders advancing proven solutions, like dual enrollment, the Promise Programs, and expanded job training access.

The poll also shows growing concern about Arizona’s universal voucher program.

A majority of voters familiar with Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) view the program negatively. More than 75% say they’re worried about fraud, misuse, and the lack of oversight, but 80% support various proposals to fix the issues identified in recent reporting.

While Education Forward Arizona supports the concept of school choice, these findings show that voters demand accountability and integrity in ESA reporting and taxpayer dollar usage. Without reforms, the ESA program risks eroding public trust in education funding.

In short: Arizonans expect their education dollars to be spent wisely, and they want state leaders to act on increasing access to education after high school.

You can see all of our poll’s findings, and read more here.

There’s more than one way to make a buck, as two students at Yavapai College are finding out.

Coen Anderson, 19, and Trent Woodward, 20, started the No Trace Hauling junk removal company to help pay for their degrees, the Verde Independent’s Brodie Greene reports.

Anderson is considering a degree in archeology at Northern Arizona University, or he might stay at Yavapai College and study business. Woodward studies business and marketing.

“We’re both into business. So we’re seeing where that takes us,” Anderson said. “It’s kind of trial and error, seeing how we can run a business and figure the ins and outs of it, seeing if it’ll be a sustainable business too.”