Defending Academic Freedom at the University of Texas
A powerful and urgent conversation is unfolding at the University of Texas, where faculty, students, and academic freedom advocates are responding to President Donald Trump’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” The pact, sent to UT and eight other universities, offers increased federal funding in exchange for adopting politically driven restrictions — including defining gender in narrow terms and banning academic units that “belittle” conservative ideals.
In an important opinion piece, longtime UT professor John Hoberman warns that accepting the compact would compromise the university’s integrity, independence, and commitment to free inquiry. Hoberman, who has taught racial and cultural studies courses at UT for more than four decades without any administrative interference, argues that the compact represents a dangerous break from Texas’s historical respect for academic freedom.
A Clear Threat to University Autonomy
Following the proposal, UT System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife expressed willingness to collaborate with the Trump administration, making UT the only institution so far to publicly welcome the plan. By contrast, universities such as MIT and Brown swiftly refused to sign, citing grave concerns about violating academic independence.
Hoberman notes that the compact effectively functions as political extortion: comply with a loyalty oath or risk financial punishment. The proposal would:
Impose externally defined ideological conformity
Restrict academic units based on political preferences
Demand student selection based exclusively on standardized metrics
Allow government intervention in faculty speech and research
These measures, Hoberman writes, would erode the core conditions that allow great universities to flourish — namely, freedom of thought, open inquiry, and resistance to political coercion.
Scholars of Academic Freedom Speak Out
A bipartisan group of six leading scholars — Robert P. George, Tom Ginsburg, Robert C. Post, David M. Rabban, Jeannie Suk Gersen, and Keith E. Whittington — issued a joint statement reaffirming why such a compact is incompatible with the mission of truth-seeking institutions.
Their key concerns include:
Restrictions on foreign students based on politically defined ideology
Mandated political “diversity” within academic departments
Standardized-only admissions requirements imposed by government fiat
Limits on faculty autonomy in teaching and research
Censorship of speech related to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations
They emphasize that no idea — conservative or liberal — should be immune from scrutiny, and that universities must be spaces of debate, critique, and intellectual challenge. Government-directed ideological insulation, from either side, runs counter to the spirit of higher education.
The Stakes for the University of Texas
Hoberman warns that endorsing the compact would send UT into “free fall,” reversing decades of academic progress and damaging its national reputation. The compact’s intrusion into academic life — from dictating curriculum boundaries to punishing extramural speech — would dismantle the very foundation of scholarly independence.
He argues that professions draw people with particular temperament and values. Universities naturally attract those committed to open inquiry, just as policing attracts more conservative temperaments. Attempting to forcibly reshape academia into a MAGA-aligned space is not only authoritarian but unrealistic.
A Call for Collective Action
Hoberman concludes with a simple message:
It is not too late.
All nine targeted universities must stand together to reject political interference and defend academic freedom — before it disappears.
Read the original article by John Hoberman:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bLu3mTidXAKplIreQZ-aIDRzQmTIEOUu/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=111033924517633597069&rtpof=true&sd=true
Read Hoberman’s published article here:
https://www.statesman.com/opinion/columns/your-voice/article/opinion-ut-not-trade-academic-freedom-political-21103031.php
Learn more about John Hoberman:
https://www.the-trebuchet.org/blog/johnhoberman