In early October 2025, the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) published a statement on the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” This follows an April joint statement from AAC&U and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, “A Call for Constructive Engagement.” The new statement, signed by more than 100 college and university presidents and academic leaders, including Bates President Garry W. Jenkins, “opposes any alternative that would erode or eviscerate essential freedoms and promote instability by making America’s colleges and universities subject not to the law and the principles that have served us so well for centuries, but to the changing priorities of successive administrations.” The full text of the statement is available here.