Seven out of the nine universities the Trump administration invited to offer feedback on the so-called Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education have politely declined to sign on. At its core, the compact offers preferential treatment in exchange for institutional support for President Donald Trump’s political agenda. This collective rejection was good news.
However, in some of the letters declining the compact, much ink was spilled to reassure the Trump administration that universities were already complying with many of the proposed changes — without even being asked! These practices chill academic freedom, limiting what faculty can study, teach and say within and outside of the classroom by creating an environment in which certain words, concepts and projects become unthinkable because they are unsayable. While the compact would have formalized institutions’ agreement to police the research, teaching and speech of professors (and students), it is evident that this sort of policing is already happening.
Academic freedom is central, even critical, to a system that evaluates research on its merits because it allows researchers to pursue questions, develop a research agenda and publish their findings without being beholden to institutions or individuals outside their field. When universities fail to underscore the central importance of academic freedom, they jeopardize their very mission.
People in academia understand this. On campuses across the country, faculty, staff, students and alumni spoke up asking their administrations to reject the compact. Some, like MIT, spoke out early and decisively, arguing its proposed “reforms” contradicted MIT’s “core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
Letter after letter reiterated that research funding should not be based on political conformity but rather on free competition in the marketplace of ideas. The best science as determined by experts in the field should receive support. Merit, not ideology, should guide scientific pursuits.