Elite Colleges Grow a Spine and Reject Trump’s Authoritarian “Compact” | Right Now With Perry Bacon

Right Now With Perry Bacon · Oct 23, 2025 · 44m

Several elite U.S. colleges, including Brown, Dartmouth, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have all rejected a “compact” with the Trump administration, in which the schools might have received additional federal funding as long as they implemented a number of conservative policies on campus, such as restricting the rights of transgender students. This is a marked shift from earlier this year, when many universities cut deals with the administration. The schools’ rejection of the compact is a very positive development, said Ryan Enos, a professor of government at Harvard. In the…