On Monday, the University Senate will vote on two resolutions affirming the University’s commitment to higher education amid recent attacks by the Trump administration. This includes a resolution that would join a “Mutual Academic Defense Compact” with other Big Ten universities.
According to Senate Executive Committee Chair Jon Hale, the resolutions were discussed at the SEC meeting on April 21 and are set to be proposed at Monday’s full Senate meeting — the last of the academic year.
Rutgers University’s Senate first proposed and approved the resolution to join a MADC on March 28, which has since been passed at several other Big Ten Universities. University of Nebraska, Indiana University, Michigan State University, University of Washington and University of Michigan approved similar resolutions. Several other universities plan on voting on it soon.
The resolution cites recent actions by the federal government attacking higher education, including “the autonomy of shared governance, the integrity of academic freedom, education, and research, along with the protection of free speech.”
If approved, the MADC resolution would call for Big Ten Academic Alliance universities to support one another against future legal or political challenges.
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“The preservation of one institution’s integrity is the concern of all, and an infringement against one member university of the Big Ten shall be considered an infringement against all,” the resolution read.
The resolution was submitted and co-sponsored by 18 senators, including Hale.
The second resolution that the University Senate will vote on includes a statement prepared by faculty from schools in the Big Ten. It affirms the importance of higher education in American society.
“Private and public higher education institutions in the United States have for over three centuries contributed to the public good, and the nation’s global leadership position, through the advancement and sharing of knowledge, and by providing pathways for workforce development,” the statement read.
The resolution includes several calls to action, including resisting and legally challenging “unlawful directives that threaten academic freedom or university self-governance,” and continuing collaboration across universities to defend higher education.
Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration, his administration threatened to withhold federal grants from universities accused of allowing antisemitism and has frozen federal funding from several schools, including Northwestern University.
At the University, cuts to federally funded research efforts forced the Soybean Innovation lab to briefly shut down and nearly cost the University a projected $67 million through a proposed National Institutes of Health indirect cost funding cap.
Several international students at the University had their visas revoked, although the Trump administration temporarily reinstated international students’ resident status on Friday. Department of Justice lawyers said Immigration and Customs Enforcement are developing a new system for reviewing student visas.
Both resolutions will be proposed to the University Senate at Monday’s meeting, starting at 3:10 p.m. in the Illini Union Ballroom.
