The doors to the Technological Institute opened Friday to Northwestern University Graduate Workers members in bright yellow shirts on their laptops, as they staged a campus-wide work-in from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The work-in was the final day of NUGW’s “Workers Over Deals” Week of Action, which included events like walk-throughs, flyering and phonebanking. The week was a response to the Trump administration’s recently proffered “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” according to third-year art history Ph.D. candidate Amanda Alvarez.
The compact asks universities to comply with various points, such as limiting international student enrollment and fostering “a vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus” in exchange for preferential access to federal funds.
“These are such vast overreaches of government power,” Alvarez said. “We are basically trying to get people to be aware that if the University signs this, they are signing away their rights.”
Initially offered to nine universities on Oct. 1, the administration extended the compact to all higher education institutions less than two weeks later. As of Oct. 23, at least 11 universities across the country have refused to sign the current version of the compact, according to Inside Higher Ed.
At a faculty meeting earlier this month, interim President Bienen said he would not take a deal that would sign away the University’s autonomy or First Amendment rights.
Fifth-year chemistry Ph.D. candidate Kristen Beckett said she joined the work-in to urge NU to reject the compact, pointing to peer universities that have already done so. She added that she was concerned that Bienen has expressed interest in some sort of deal to facilitate the return of Northwestern’s federal funding.
Beckett has seen the loss of funding in the chemistry department, noting that although her group’s grants have not been canceled, some of them have been flagged because of DEI statements.
“But signing a deal, we’ve already seen, doesn’t really do anything, and it basically just brings the federal government into our university,” Beckett said. “Just because we sign this, it doesn’t mean they’re gonna stay away.”
At least 20 NUGW members signed up to participate in the work-in, scattered across campus in Kresge Centennial Hall, University Library, Pancoe Life Sciences Pavilion, Tech and the Chicago campus’ Lurie Atrium, although people also showed up without RSVPs, according to Alvarez.
In Pancoe, third-year interdisciplinary biological sciences Ph.D. student Genevieve Nemeth called the compact’s vague wording concerning.
“There’s so much leeway legally for how they could incriminate people for saying that you can’t attack conservative views,” Nemeth said. “There’s no real outlining of what that would entail about sharing all information you have about international workers, which obviously is a huge privacy concern.”
Nemeth added that the compact could also threaten the University’s union contract, specifically with regard to issues concerning non-citizen workers and gender identity expression.
Clauses in the union’s contract with the University specify that people can use restrooms “aligned with their gender identity” and that NU-SHIP, the NU insurance plan, will continue providing gender-affirming care. The union contract also states that the University cannot share student information with the Department of Homeland Security unless legally compelled to do so.
Alvarez warned that the compact could label pro-Palestinian protests as “pro-terrorism” — a possibility she called “extremely worrisome.”
NUGW is also organizing a letter-writing initiative through Action Network and encouraged all students, including undergraduates, to write to the administration and voice their concerns about the compact, Alvarez said.
Third-year psychology Ph.D. student Erin Hugee said she doesn’t want to see this compact affect anyone at either the undergraduate or graduate level. In her opinion, much of the anger and worry stems from a place of care.
“We’re educators, right? We’re all in school. This is what universities are supposed to be for — sharing knowledge,” Hugee said. “We do not want to see the school ruined by this compact.”
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