AUSTIN—University of Texas students staged a protest on Monday in opposition to university participation in the Trump administration’s new higher education reform initiative, the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.
The rally, organized under slogans like “Our Campus Not Trump’s” and “Rally for Academic Freedom,” drew a crowd of around 100 in front of the UT Tower. While decrying President Donald Trump as a “fascist” and comparing conservatives to “Nazis,” protestors called for the university to reject the compact.
Trump has condemned such language, stating, “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today and it must stop right now.”
Announced on October 1, the Trump initiative invited select universities—UT-Austin being the only one from Texas—to join an initial cohort and adopt a series of reforms aimed at overhauling admissions, hiring practices, and campus governance.
This new initiative followed years of revelations of higher education institutions instilling in students pro-LGBT and other left-wing ideologies.
Students for a Democratic Society was leading the protest alongside University Democrats, UT Grad Workers Union, and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas.
Demonstrators voiced concerns over the compact’s provisions, which include requirements for standardized tests in admissions, strict bans on demographics-based preferences, and mandates for institutional neutrality on political issues.
They held signs stating “Defend Latino Studies”—an abandonment of the LGBT phrase “Latinx”—and “Stop the Compact.”
“Conservatives are hallucinating a left-wing plot to kill them,” said one of the speakers, who went by the name “Bethany,” and referred to himself as a “proud transgender Texan.”
Multiple speakers alluded to Charlie’s Kirk assassination without referring to him by name and suggested the university was using his death as a pretext to shut them down.
Another speaker introduced himself with his pronouns: “they/them.”
Protest organizers argued that the initiative could restrict campus diversity efforts and impact student and faculty rights.
UT System officials, led by Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife, have expressed enthusiasm for working with the Trump administration.
Despite statements from the UT System Board of Regents expressing support for the initiative, student organizers pledged continued action, arguing that the university “can’t be bought” and calling for UT-Austin leaders to reconsider participation in the Trump administration’s program.
The Dean of Students Office was monitoring the protest, and when it asked the students to move away so a vehicle could exit the area, the students complied.
This compact is only one of the reforms both UT-Austin and the UT System have undertaken. In late September, in response to a question about one of its departments promoting the LGBT agenda, a UT-Austin spokesman informed Texas Scorecard it was auditing classes and curriculum.
Later, the UT System stated it was “reviewing courses on gender identity taught at all U.T. institutions.”
UT-Austin is a component of the University of Texas System. The UT System is overseen by a board of regents that is appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Texas Senate.
