The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy, and in our society.
NWLC, LDF, and Lawyers’ Committee Urge Colleges and Universities to Support the Foundational Values for Higher Education
NWLC, LDF, and Lawyers’ Committee Urge Colleges and Universities to Support the Foundational Values for Higher Education
Trump’s anti-civil rights agenda is a threat to academic freedom, equity, inclusion, and student success. We are fighting back to protect students, faculty, and our education system.
The National Women’s Law Center, LDF, and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, have released the Foundational Values for Higher Education, a pro-equity compact that upholds constitutional freedoms to debate and protest and civil rights protections that promote educational environments where all students and staff can thrive and be treated fairly and with dignity. These values are critical for protecting our democracy and our freedoms.
The Trump administration is attacking academic freedoms and these fundamental values that allow higher education to thrive by seeking to control who is admitted to and hired by colleges and universities, what students can learn and faculty can teach, what programs campuses offer to their communities, and whether students, faculty, and staff can engage in debate and lawful protest. As part of this harmful agenda, on October 1, 2025, the Department of Education released a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that demands schools capitulate to the Trump administration’s attacks on democracy and civil rights in order to access preferential federal funding, student visas, and other benefits.
We urge colleges and universities to instead commit to upholding and defending constitutional freedoms and equal opportunity, inclusion, accessibility, fairness, and open debate by supporting the Foundational Values for Higher Education. More than fifty other organizations have endorsed this pro-equity compact. If your organization would like to endorse the Foundational Values for Higher Education, please complete this form.
- Read the full compact and list of signers here.
- Current students can join us in urging their college or university to protect these principles by using our student organizing toolkit, developed with Advocates for Youth, available here.
- For additional resources on how schools can and should protect these rights, please visit here.
- To read NWLC, LDF’s, and Lawyers’ Committee letter urging college and university presidents to reject the Trump administration’s October 1, 2025 Compact, click here.
List of endorsing organizations and groups:
Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE)
AFSCME
AFT: Education, Healthcare, Public Services
Alliance for Higher Education
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
American Atheists
American Humanist Association
Arab American Institute (AAI)
Asian American Advocacy Fund
Asian Americans Advancing Justice- AAJC
CenterLink
Class Action
Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues
Coalition on Human Needs
ED-OCR Alumni Collective
EdTrust
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC)
End Rape On Campus
Equal Rights Advocates
Equality California
Feminist Majority Foundation
GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLA Law)
Historians for Peace and Democracy
Human Rights Campaign
Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Just Solutions
Know Your IX at Advocates for Youth
Ladder Consulting
LatinoJustice
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Legal Momentum, The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
Maine Women’s Lobby
Minority Business Enterprise Legal Defense and Education Fund (MBELDEF)
Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights
NAACP
National Center for Science and Civic Engagement
National Council of Asian Pacific Americans
National Council of Jewish Women
National Education Association
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women’s Political Caucus
National Women’s Studies Association
NBJC
North Star Consulting Network, LLC
PFLAG National
Public Advocates Inc.
Public Counsel
Robert and Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center
Sexual Violence Prevention Association (SVPA)
Silver State Equality
Sisters Lead Sisters Vote
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)
Stop Sexual Assault in Schools
The African American Policy Forum
The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
The Every Voice Coalition
The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS)
The LEAD Fund
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Women Employed
Working IDEAL
