Inside the Student Resistance to Authoritarianism on Campus

Brown University senior Caitlyn Carpenter was working on a class discussion post the night of Oct. 1, when news broke that set off a firestorm of debate in academia. The Trump administration had just released a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” and invited nine prominent universities, including Brown, to sign on. Schools that did so would receive preferential federal treatment. 

The compact included provisions to restrict student protests, eliminate gender-neutral restrooms and identity-based affinity spaces, and limit international student enrollment, among other regressive measures.

“I knew immediately we had to do something,” said Carpenter, who is a member of Sunrise Brown and an outreach organizer for the national Campus Climate Network, or CCN. 

That night, Carpenter joined a Zoom call with other Brown students who spent two hours discussing what to do. They decided to launch a new organization, Brown Rise Up, specifically to counter the spread of authoritarianism on campus.

Students at other universities that had been asked to sign the compact were having similar conversations. 

“Within 24 hours of the compact’s release, we had students from every one of the nine schools getting on a Zoom call to discuss how to respond,” said Alicia Colomer, a recent New York University graduate and CCN managing director. 

CCN is one of many organizations in the nationwide Students Rise Up coalition, which formed this fall to resist President Donald Trump’s agenda on college campuses. Defeating the compact became a major coalition priority.

However, student leaders are already looking beyond this one document to a wider campus-based movement against authoritarianism in all its forms. 

The Compact for Academic Excellence includes a list of attacks on the free speech of students and faculty. For example, one prohibition against “heckling” could be used to ban a wide range of protest activity. A separate provision forbids university employees from commenting on “societal and political events” in their official capacity. 

Combined with measures targeting affirmative action, international admissions and various diversity, equity and inclusion programs, these restrictions would dramatically alter college life. However, students like Carpenter worried their peers didn’t fully grasp the implications.

Mouths taped shut 

“It was scary how little most people at Brown knew about what’s actually in the compact,” Carpenter said. “Early news coverage tended to focus on the benefits to universities, not the federal government having its hand deep in academia.”

To correct this, Brown Rise Up posted hundreds of fliers around campus, left messages on classroom chalkboards and spread the word on Instagram. They also joined with faculty to hold a rally where professors stood in full regalia with tape over their mouths. 

These efforts paid off when Brown became the second school, after MIT, to reject the Trump compact. Five more of the nine targeted schools — Dartmouth and the Universities of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Southern California and Arizona — declined to sign soon after. 

Of the remaining two schools, Vanderbilt says it gave the administration feedback without signing or rejecting the compact and the University of Texas at Austin has not taken a stance.

“These victories are because of a nationwide movement coming together,” Carpenter said.

The Trump administration soon pivoted to inviting any college to sign its compact, but without much more success. Once again, student opposition played an important role. 

“As a public university with an influential position, we knew we had a chance to set a precedent by refusing to sign,” said Amy Okonkwo, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sophomore.

On Nov. 7, UNC students including Okonkwo held a rally as part of a national day of action coordinated by Students Rise Up. Afterward, they delivered a petition to university Chancellor Lee Roberts, asking him to reject the compact. At a faculty meeting later that afternoon, a professor asked the chancellor for his position. 

In a victory for student organizers, Roberts said parts of the compact are “clearly an infringement on academic freedom,” and that UNC wouldn’t sign. 

UNC students cheered the move, but said they are not done.

“As much as we applaud our school’s rejection of Trump’s compact, our underlying demand is about much more,” Okonkwo said. “It’s about stopping the federal government from widening its reach on campus, by this or any other means.”

Creeping authoritarianism

As students protest the Trump agenda, they were already having to navigate a trend of increased restrictions on campus speech even before the second Trump administration. At many universities, the crackdown started during last year’s widespread protests for Palestine. 

“Since then, and especially after Trump took office, AU has redone many of its policies about student speech,” said Kelsey Mackert, a senior at American University in Washington. “Now, you need a permit for gatherings of more than 30 people. There are new restrictions on amplified sound. And fliers have to be approved in advance.”

When Mackert and other AU students began planning for the Nov. 7 day of action, they knew they had to be strategic.

“We made it a kind of open mic, coalition-building event,” Mackert said. “There was food, music and space for people to share their personal stories.” 

In Washington, where the National Guard has been deployed since August, the impacts of rising authoritarianism are a very real concern for many AU students. The laid-back nature of their event helped avoid any drastic reaction from school authorities as they discussed their experiences.

“Some campus police walked by to check it out,” Mackert said. “But it’s hard to justify shutting down an event where students are just listening to music and talking.”

American University has yet to say if it will sign the Trump compact. However, Mackert says the school has abolished gender-neutral restrooms and revoked visas of some international students.

Colleges that have rejected the compact continue to feel pressure from the federal government, and in some cases thata has led to the reversal of years of progress for social justice.

According to Okonkwo, UNC this year abolished a designated affinity space for Black students. In October, UNC professor Dwayne Dixon was suspended for alleged connections to an anti-fascist group, though the suspension was reversed after student and faculty outcry. Chancellor Roberts has also said UNC would cooperate with ICE if asked.

“There’s a long line of wrongs our university has done to its students,” Okonkwo said.

Still, the chilly reception toward Trump’s compact suggests there are limits to how far universities will capitulate, provided students hold them accountable. 

A Nov. 21 deadline the Trump administration set for schools to sign the compact passed without any major universities announcing support. It remains unclear whether the administration intends to keep pushing the initiative in the face of setbacks.

“Universities have suppressed protest more and more in recent years,” said Colomer, whose role at CCN involves training students to take action on their campuses. “Now, some are realizing they went too far, and that student speech and academic freedom are things they need to defend.”

Looking ahead 

Students Rise Up and its many member organizations — which include CCN, Sunrise Movement, Students for a Democratic Society and almost two dozen others — are calling for monthly days of action that will culminate in a major mobilization in May 2026.

“The idea is to have a mass, coordinated action across campuses that forces universities to pay attention,” Colomer said. “At some schools, this might look like a student strike. At others it might be something else.” 

Specific demands vary from one school to another, but include reversing restrictions on the right to protest, protecting transgender and immigrant students, and fulfilling longstanding calls for sustainability and social justice on campus.

“Students are feeling an urgency catalyzed by fear,” Okonkwo said. “People are ready to step up and show up.”

What happens next at colleges over the next several months could have implications that reach far beyond higher education.

“Universities have to fight back against the Trump agenda on our campuses,” said Carpenter, the Brown University student. “If we don’t, that’s another pillar of power lost to rising authoritarianism in the U.S.”