By Juliet Cassone Saxton, UCWAZ UA Chapter Secretary; Asa Henry, UCWAZ NAU Chapter Vice Chair Elect; and Justine Hecht, UCWAZ Local Secretary and a HELU Delegate
In October 2025, the Trump Administration took its next swing at higher education — offering nine universities a Compact for Higher Education. The compact was a poorly attempted bribe that, in exchange for preferential federal funding, would have required higher education institutions to limit or abolish campus and academic programs that support diversity, equity, and inclusion; limit the number of international students to just 15% of the student body; and narrowly define gender by biological sex. Here in Arizona, the University of Arizona (UA) was one of the nine original targets of the administration, and United Campus Workers of Arizona (UCWAZ) was ready to respond.
With lightning speed, UCWAZ joined with 18 campus organizations at the UA to rally against Trump’s compact for higher education. Speaker after speaker articulated that the conditions threatened in the compact would make campus life worse for students. Students rallied, marched, and protested at Old Main and the Administration building. Teach-ins from both United Campus Workers and Associated Students of the University of Arizona (ASUA) brought students together to voice their concerns and dissent.
ASUA approved a resolution opposing the compact and signed a joint statement with Student Government Representatives from MIT, the University of Virginia, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, and Vanderbilt University, urging their universities to reject the compact in defense of institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Students at the University of Arizona have said no to considering these conditions. As the nine original targets slowly began to reject the compact, the Trump administration opened the compact up to all higher education institutions, and we mobilized students and workers at Arizona State University (ASU) and Northern Arizona University (NAU) to protect our campuses.
At ASU, UCWAZ organized a teach-in focused on academic freedom. We hosted faculty, staff, and student speakers – plus UCWAZ member and Arizona state senator Lauren Kuby — on how the compact would directly affect our working and learning conditions. UCWAZ joined the Arizona Students’ Association, Young Democrats of Arizona, College Democrats of Arizona,and Keep Arizona Blue Student Coalition in a press conference which called on all universities to reject the Compact.
At NAU, workers began flyering on campus to raise awareness about the impacts of the compact on their teaching, researching, and learning conditions. Our fellow workers within the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) got involved. They began to probe their faculty senates and the district chancellor to determine whether the community colleges had been offered the compact and how the district administration might respond. While ASU and UA have not accepted the compact in its current form, both university presidents have left the door open for negotiations—negotiations that are occurring between campus administrators and the Trump administration, excluding the vast majority of those who will be directly impacted by its demands — workers and students.
While the compact is currently off the table in its current form, we know that these backdoor negotiations spell trouble for students and workers. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that ASU President Michael Crow sought out the Trump administration to provide input on what a viable compact could look like. We know that students and workers have an alternative vision for higher education. One that builds wall-to-wall power to fight for a thriving wage for all campus workers, job security for our contingent and adjunct faculty, protections for academic freedom and DEI efforts, safety for our international and undocumented community members, and a system of higher education that is invested in as a public good so that no students leave our institutions with unpayable student debt. The Trump administration came for us, and UCWAZ responded by building solidarity across our campuses with an eye for May Day 2026 and beyond. We know that the only way to save our system of higher education, to save our democracy, is for workers to come together, wall-to-wall and coast-to-coast, to organize for the world we want to see. Our vision for higher education is made possible when we stand together, because when we fight, we win.