CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A crowd of about 300 turned out Friday for a “Reject the Compact Rally” on the Lawn at the University of Virginia. It was a coalition of student, faculty, and alumni groups including the American Association of University Professors, United Campus Workers, Wahoos4UVA, Rise Up, the National Campus Jewish Alliance, as well as the faculty and student councils.

“It’s part of a coordinated event being hosted at all nine Compact universities and targets who wish to provide a strong example of resistance to this kind of tyranny,” AAUP’s Walt Heinicke said. “We urge our administration to be the fifth of the nine compact targets to reject this threat to academic freedom and free speech. … The compact is the most significant threat to the mission of higher education since the McCarthy era, except this time rather than targeting individuals, the Administration is targeting institutions that are the bedrock of our democracy.”

The group met on the Rotunda steps and heard from speakers among the group sponsors, then marched south down the Lawn, then back north to deliver a Faculty Senate resolution opposing the Compact to leadership, which was approved by a 60-to-2 vote, at Madison Hall.

UVA was one of nine schools that received a letter from the Trump administration asking it to sign on to the President’s “compact for academic excellence in higher education” in return for priority access to federal funding.

The 10-point plan demands schools eliminate diversity considerations from admissions and hirings, cut down on international student enrollment, freeze tuition, and share data on earnings of graduates.

Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon), a UVA Law grad who has one child graduated from UVA in 2024 and another currently enrolled, was in attendance. He told rally goers the Senate leadership has written Interim President Paul Mahoney and the Board of Visitors, urging them “to immediately cease consideration of this agreement.”

“We’ve asked them to stop right now, don’t even consider it, say ‘no’ today just like the other four schools,” he said.

He said the Trump Administration has already infringed on UVA self-governance by forcing out President Jim Ryan, but said the worst thing one can do is “appease a bully”.

He equated the situation UVA is facing right now, “I used to read my kids a story, and those of you students might remember it, but if you give a mouse a cookie… what does he want next?”

The crowd correctly shouted, “Milk.”

“He wants a glass of milk,” Surovell said.

“The President forced out President Ryan and guess what? They’re back!”

Surovell urged the crowd to read the compact.

“It will strip UVA of the right to make its own decisions, it will cap international student enrollment, if they contradict this Administration’s policies they will freeze tuition for five years, mandating free STEM tuition forcing other students who aren’t’ STEM to pay the tuition for those who are, silence faculty members, and will subject every academic decision to arbitrary federal enforcement with the consequence that the school lose all federal funding,” he said. “It is a trap, a trap for all the schools to have them perpetually begging Trump for permission.”

Student Council President Clay Dickerson was less measured, urging the crowd to shout, “F#$% the Compact.”

“This is what the heart and soul of UVA looks like,” Dickerson fumed. “We pour everything into this place… our blood, our sweat, our tears, our dreams, our hopes, our desires, and there’s people in D.C. who haven’t done a lick of that trying to tell us what to do!”

“They know that if they can control the University, they can control the future,” student Sarah Ahmed with Wahoos4UVA said. “We will not let them.”

President Mahoney told Cville Right Now  that he urged the community to “trust the process”.

“We’re going to respond in a way that is true to the Jeffersonian vision that animates the University,” Mahoney said.

When Heinicke heard this quote, he responded, “Well, that sounds like he’s getting ready to reject it, if that’s the case.”

“If he’s being accurate about what he’s saying, that sounds like it’s a rejection,” she said.

Though attendees at Friday’s rally called on Mahoney and the BOV to reject the Compact immediately, Mahoney said they have until Monday to respond.