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Rutgers Senate Proposes Big Ten 'Mutual Defense Compact' to Block Trump's Campus Attacks
Universities "should be embodying the values of democracy," said one supporter. "And it really becomes clear in times like this how important that is."
Mar 31, 2025
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.
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Jewish Organizers Slam GOP Antisemitism Hearing as 'Offensive and Dangerous'
"These hearings are designed to stoke divisions so that we forget who is actually unsafe—the students of Gaza where every university has been destroyed," said one Jewish student who protested at UCLA.
May 23, 2024
As U.S. House Republicans held yet another hearing about antisemitism and higher education on Thursday, Jewish students and advocacy groups aimed to set the record straight on the threats they face and the largely peaceful protests against genocide.
"This hearing has nothing to do with keeping Jewish students on campus safe, and is solely designed as part of a broader campaign to silence anti-war activism and dissent on college campuses," declared Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action. "MAGA Republicans are merging attempts to censor students and faculty speaking out for Palestinian rights with a broader culture war campaign against [diversity, equity, and inclusion], critical race theory, LGBTQ rights, and more."
Since Israel launched its U.S.-backed assault of the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attack, students and faculty—many of them Jewish—have held demonstrations and set up encampments across the country, demanding that their colleges and universities divest from what critics call a genocidal war against Palestinians.
In addition to enduring violent crackdowns by law enforcement called in by administrators, campus protesters have faced consequences including suspension, expulsion, and not being allowed to graduate—as was the case for 13 seniors at Harvard University, which sparked a commencement walkout by hundreds of students on Thursday.
"I felt completely safe in the encampment until we were attacked by pro-genocide counterprotesters and the police."
The GOP-controlled House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on antisemitism and colleges in November—after which House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) hosted one December, another last month, and a third on Thursday.
The latest hearing featured testimony from Gene Block, chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles; Jonathan Holloway, president of Rutgers University; Michael Schill, president of Northwestern University; and Frederick M. Lawrence, secretary and CEO of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
After students were injured and arrested when Los Angeles police in riot gear attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA early this month, Graeme Blair, an associate professor of political science and member of Faculty for Justice in Palestine, said that "their blood is on Gene Block and the UC administration's hands."
Benjamin Kersten, a JVP member pursuing a Ph.D. in Jewish art history, said Thursday that "I am a Jewish student at UCLA who proudly participated in the protest calling on our university to divest from genocide. I felt completely safe in the encampment until we were attacked by pro-genocide counterprotesters and the police. These hearings are designed to stoke divisions so that we forget who is actually unsafe—the students of Gaza where every university has been destroyed."
CNNreported that during Thursday's hearing, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) took aim at her Republican colleagues.
"Instead of using these hearings for political bullying purposes, which is what the majority seems to do—and if you want to be embarrassed about something, perhaps be embarrassed about the fact that this majority has not been able to govern in this cycle without being
saved by Democrats—I for one am interested in hearing and learning about what successful negotiation and de-escalation looks like in the context of protecting students and free speech," Jayapal said.
Unlike UCLA, Northwestern and Rutgers ended their encampments through negotiations with student protesters. According toThe Associated Press, while Foxx said, "Mr. Schill and Dr. Holloway, you should be doubly ashamed for capitulating to the antisemitic rule breakers," the Northwestern president explained that "the police solution was not going to be available to us to keep people safe, and also may not be the wisest solution as we've seen at other campuses across the country."
Paz Baum, a JVP member set to graduate from Northwestern next year, said that "I joined the protests calling out Northwestern's complicity in the Israeli military's destruction of Gaza because as the descendant of people who fled genocide I understand that never again must mean never again for anyone."
"Despite attacks from counterprotests and condemnation from Congress, I will keep calling for an end to genocide," Baum added. "It is what Jewish tradition requires of me."
As of Thursday, Israel's assault on Gaza has killed at least 35,800 people and injured another 80,011, according to Palestinian officials. The war has also devastated civilian infrastructure and left survivors—many displaced multiple times over the past seven months—struggling to find food, water, and medical care.
The International Court of Justice has taken up a South Africa-led genocide case against Israel and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif.
As the international community and some progressive U.S. political leaders have increasingly expressed alarm about the war and accused Israel of genocide, many other politicians in the United States—across party lines—have backed Netanyahu's assault on Gaza, including with billions of dollars in military support. They have also repeatedly conflated antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli government, despite Jewish Americans' objections.
"It is offensive and dangerous that right-wing Republicans are putting on a show hearing under the pretense of protecting Jewish safety when in fact the only thing they are protecting are the profits of weapons companies and ongoing U.S. complicity in Israeli war crimes," JVP executive director Stefanie Fox said Thursday.
She argued that "Congress is using these hearings to distract from the very point of the principled anti-genocide student movement: The U.S. and Israeli governments continue this genocide despite mass opposition."
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Thousands of Rutgers Faculty on Strike to Demand 'Transformative' Contract for Underpaid Teachers
"Our picket lines have been and will continue to be a peaceful, nonviolent expression of our determination to make a better Rutgers for our students and workers," said three unions representing faculty and graduate students.
Apr 11, 2023
Three unions representing faculty members and graduate student workers at Rutgers University in New Jersey on Tuesday rejected the school president's accusation that their strike, now in its second day following nearly a year of contract negotiations, is disrespectful of Rutgers students.
"Let's be clear: Our picket lines have been and will continue to be a peaceful, nonviolent expression of our determination to make a better Rutgers for our students and workers," said the unions, whose members overwhelmingly voted last month to go on strike.
\u201cRutgers strike, peak euphoria \u2014 unmute this one \ud83d\ude0d\u201d— Eric Blanc (@Eric Blanc) 1681244687
The work stoppage was announced Sunday and includes about 9,000 union members at the public university, who are represented by Rutgers American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers (Rutgers AAUP-AFT), Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey (BHSNJ).
The unions represent full-time faculty, adjunct lecturers, and the faculty of the university's medical, dental, nursing, and public health schools.
The workers have been negotiating with the school since last July and are calling for changes including a 20% pay increase over four years for full-time professors, a minimum salary of $37,150 for graduate workers, guaranteed funding for teaching assistants and graduate students, an increase of new parents' "release time" to 14 weeks, and equal pay for equal work for adjunct instructors, who they say should be paid and eligible for benefits equal to those given to nontenure track faculty.
"We intend for this new contract to be transformative, especially for our lowest-paid and most vulnerable members," Rebecca Givan, the president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, toldThe New York Times.
According to the unions, the university has agreed to only a 3% yearly raise followed by smaller pay increases in subsequent years and has "rejected all substantial proposals" regarding funding for graduate students, adjunct teacher pay, job security, and other changes to workers' contracts.
The university's "net unrestricted assets" have skyrocketed in recent years, the unions have said, reaching $818.6 million during the coronavirus pandemic. Union faculty members and their supporters on campus have used the hashtag #RutgersHasTheMoney on social media to build awareness of the school's failure to meet their demands for fair compensation.
\u201cUntil the University awards its faculty and staff with contracts that include fair wages and protections for adjunct faculty (among other demands), my service to the University is withheld.\n\n#RUOnStrike #RutgersHasTheMoney\u201d— Ryan Glaubke (@Ryan Glaubke) 1681130885
One graduate student, Michelle Ling, told the Times that she earns $30,000 per year and that many graduate students struggle to make ends meet.
"A lot of the grads that I know here are on food stamps," she told the newspaper. "A lot of grads I know have secret part-time jobs they don't report to the university because they have to—they have families, they have responsibilities."
Students joined union members in solidarity on Monday and Tuesday as the workers began the work stoppage, with picketers chanting, "No contract, no peace!" and "Together, unite, Rutgers on strike!" at the university's three campuses.
\u201cNO CONTRACT, NO PEACE!!!\n\n@ruaaup @ruaaup_ptl \n#FairContractNow \n#RUonStrike \n\nSupport Rutgers unions strike fund here: https://t.co/CiuxQpcPJs\u201d— American Association of University Professors (@American Association of University Professors) 1681147621
Michael Reagan, who teaches at Rutgers' School of Management and Labor Relations, reported on Twitter that construction workers on the school's New Brunswick campus were stopping work on a project in solidarity with the strike.
In Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway's email to the school community Monday night, he threatened to seek an injunction in court to force the faculty to return to work, claiming strikes by public sector workers are illegal in New Jersey.
While state courts have issued injunctions to stop public sector walkouts before, "there is no state statute that prohibits strikes or work stoppages by public employees, including faculty employed by Rutgers," said the unions. "New Jersey public employees have gone on strike at least 36 times in the past 30 years."
"Rather than threatening us, we urge President Holloway to demand movement from his negotiators, who have repeatedly said no to our core proposals," said the unions.
Union representatives were in Trenton on Tuesday, following an invitation from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy to the unions and university officials to negotiate in the state capital.
"We are in Trenton today and are bargaining in good faith there, as we have for nearly a year—with the hope that Gov. Murphy will influence the Holloway administration to finally take bargaining seriously," the unions said.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among the lawmakers who voiced support for the graduate students and faculty members as the strike began Monday.
\u201cI stand in solidarity with the 9,000 @ruaaup faculty and graduate student workers on strike at Rutgers University. These workers deserve a good contract with fair pay and benefits NOW.\u201d— Bernie Sanders (@Bernie Sanders) 1681132934
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), whose district includes Rutgers, joined union members on the picket line Monday.
\u201cJoined today in solidarity with @ruaaup - Rutgers professors, faculty, and graduate students who are on strike and demonstrating on the New Brunswick campus. An agreement must be reached that provides fair pay, benefits, and job security.\u201d— Rep. Frank Pallone (@Rep. Frank Pallone) 1681149666
"The [university] administration calls me all the time to try to get more grants and funding for more research," Pallone told the Times. "But I always say if that is going to be the case, we need to make sure that the graduate students who are doing the research, teaching the classes, they have to have a fair wage too."
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