Rutgers Senate Proposes Big Ten 'Mutual Defense Compact' to Block Trump's Campus Attacks

A resolution passed by the Rutgers University Senate in response to the Trump administration's crackdown on First Amendment rights is "exactly the kind of model" needed in higher education, said one professor on Sunday as word spread of the document—which was approved amid outcry over other universities' capitulation to the White House's attacks.

"The public is crying out for leadership from somewhere," said Michael Yarbrough, a professor of law and society at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Higher ed can provide that and catalyze something bigger. And in the process, we can remind everyone of our true value, something we desperately need to do."

The step toward leadership came in the form of a resolution to form a "mutual defense compact" with other schools that, along with Rutgers, make up the Big Ten Academic Alliance. Under the compact, the schools would "commit meaningful funding to a shared or distributed defense fund" that would provide "immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement."

The Rutgers Senate, which includes faculty, students, staff, and alumni, called on the New Jersey institution's president to "take a leading role in convening a summit of Big Ten academic and legal leadership to initiate the implementation of this compact."

The resolution, passed on March 28, was agreed to days after the Rutgers faculty union filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration to block its efforts to abduct, detain, and deport international students for expressing support for Palestinian rights, criticism of Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza and the West Bank, and taking part in pro-Palestinian campus protests over the past year.

Under Trump's executive orders to stop what it classifies as "antisemitism" and to deport foreign nationals who "espouse hateful ideology," immigration agents in recent weeks have detained people including Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student who led negotiations last year calling on the school to divest from companies that profit from Israel's policies; Tufts University Ph.D. candidate Rumeysa Ozturk, who co-wrote an op-ed calling for her school's divestment; and Georgetown University academic Badar Khan Suri, who was detained because "the government suspects that he and his wife oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel," according to his lawyers.

"We've all been trying to figure out how to solve this collective action problem. This seems like a very positive big step in the right direction."

"The First Amendment means the government can't arrest, detain, or deport people for lawful political expression—it's as simple as that," said Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute, which is representing the Rutgers union and other faculty organizations in the lawsuit. "This practice is one we'd ordinarily associate with the most repressive political regimes, and it should have no place in our democracy."

Under the Rutgers resolution, members of the senate called on participating institutions to "make available, at the request of the
institution under direct political infringement, the services of their legal counsel, governance experts, and public affairs offices to coordinate a unified and vigorous response."

The response could include legal representation, countersuit actions, amicus briefs, legislative advocacy, and "coalition-building," according to the resolution.

"We've all been trying to figure out how to solve this collective action problem," said Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, a professor at University of Minnesota—another member of the Big Ten alliance. "This seems like a very positive big step in the right direction."

A Rutgers Senate member who asked to remain anonymous told Common Dreams on Tuesday that members of the university community have expressed "relief" and "joy" at the news that the body is taking a leadership role in fighting the Trump administration's attacks on higher education.

"People are just feeling like there's something they can hang their hats on that's hopeful," said the member, who was involved in pushing the resolution forward. "Individuals who are concerned about higher education, who are involved in it or connected to it—we're looking to something like this from a big university who can step out and say, 'Let's get something going here to blockade against these attacks.'"

Trump's assault on First Amendment rights are understood to be "existential" by many on university campuses like Rutgers, said the member.

"Proud to be a Rutgers faculty member today," said Michal Raucher, a professor of Jewish studies at Rutgers University—New Brunswick, regarding the passage of the resolution.

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, chair of the joint program in English and education at University of Michigan—another member of the Big Ten alliance—expressed support for the Rutgers Senate's leadership.

"I greatly admired our Rutgers colleagues' actions of solidarity during the recent waves of campus strikes," said Thomas. "My admiration has increased tenfold."

Last May, about 100 Rutgers faculty members prepared to form a protective circle around students' Palestinian solidarity encampment at the school's New Brunswick, New Jersey campus as a deadline set by administrators approached and officials threatened the students with arrest.

"We are an extremely diverse community," said the Rutgers Senate member. "And I think that we prize that about our community and about our state, because we know that we are elevated by it from the standpoint of having so many different perspectives, weighing on different kinds of issues."

"As the largest public university in the state, as the major land grant university, we take our commitment to the people of New Jersey and to the enterprise of public higher education very seriously," they added. "And we see these kinds of attacks for what they are."

In contrast to the resolution, Columbia administrators have faced harsh rebukes from First Amendment rights advocates for agreeing to the Trump administration's demands when the White House said it was canceling $400 million in government grants and contracts over the school's alleged "continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."

In response, Columbia—which allowed New York City police to drag students out of a school building and arrest more than 100 people last year during the pro-Palestinian protests—suspended, expelled, and revoked the degrees of some students who had participated in the demonstrations and increased law enforcement presence on campus, among other steps.

The Rutgers Senate member said the body's chair is planning to meet with the university president, Jonathan Holloway, who is set to step down in June, to ask him to sign on to the resolution.

"I think he can make the choice to essentially become legendary in the field and take a strong stand like this and organize his colleagues," said the senate member.

Yarbrough said that Trump's crackdown on protesters, and the capitulation of some institutions, illustrates how education "is really crucial to democracy and to a healthy democracy."

"We should be embodying the values of democracy," said Yarbrough. "And it really becomes clear in times like this how important that is."

While some university administrators are "caving to the Trump administration," he said, "what I think of as the real university of faculty, staff, and students are actually pushing back. And I think that mirrors what we're seeing in the United States more broadly, where most elected leaders and officials are not pushing back the way we would like. But all kinds of people on the ground really are."

"That's what it takes to push back [against] these kinds of authorities and threats," said Yarbrough. "It comes back to the people."

Editor's note: This piece has been updated with additional comments from Michael Yarbrough and a Rutgers Senate member.