Campus Crowd Demands Vanderbilt Reject Trump Deal

Frustrated faculty and students cut a loud path through Vanderbilt’s main campus on Wednesday afternoon en route to Kirkland Hall, the university’s administrative heart and home to Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s office. Holding handmade signs reading “Reject Trump's Compact” and “Protect Free Speech,” campus protesters chanted and beat drums, capturing the attention of fellow classmates between classes and campus activities.

Vanderbilt is among nine universities nationwide considering an agreement with the Trump administration to receive priority federal funding in exchange for making several concessions related to campus life, admissions and academic freedom. The 10-point memo — called the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” — would ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions processes, freeze tuition for five years, cap international undergraduate enrollment, and require applicants to take the SAT or ACT. It would also hold the schools to the government’s trans-exclusionary definition of gender. Protesters Wednesday called on Vanderbilt to reject the bargain and see the moment as critical to determining the future of American universities.