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Outside of Oscar Ritchie Hall, students protest the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, holding up signs, urging the Trump Administration to take their “hands off” their education on Friday, Nov 7, 2025.
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After initially gathering at Risman Plaza, protestors marched towards Oscar Ritchie Hall to hear more testimonies during the Ohio Student Association’s “Students Rise Up” protest on Friday, Nov 7, 2025.
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Inside Oscar Ritchie Hall, Nica Degaldo, vice president of the Ohio Student Association’s Kent State chapter and library/ information science graduate student, discusses the potential affects of the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025.
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Nica Degaldo, vice president of the Ohio Student Association’s Kent State chapter and library/ information science graduate student, explained in a press release how the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education will “destroy what is left of our universities.”
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Students and professors gather inside Oscar Ritchie Hall to express their concerns about the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education and urge Kent State to reject it on Friday, Nov. 7, 2025.
On Friday, Nov.7, the Ohio Student Association’s Kent State chapter and students joined 1,000 schools across the nation with the “Student’s Rise Up” campaign, urging the university not to sign the Trump Administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
The compact offered preferential funding to universities who agree to its conditions, which state that “academic freedom is not absolute” and include possibly shutting down “institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” according to The New York Times.
The “Students Rise Up” campaign is led by the Sunrise Movement, College Democrats of America, Campus Climate Network, OSA, Florida Youth Action Fund, Frontline for Freedom, Honest Education Action and Leadership Together and Students for Democratic Society as they encourage schools to reject Trump Administration policies that impact schools and students.
OSA, Students for Justice in Palestine, Kent State Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, the May 4th Task Force and other student organizations gathered on Risman Plaza to listen to speakers express their concerns, before marching to Oscar Ritchie Hall where the protest was concluded.
As the implementation of Ohio’s Senate Bill 1 continues to change Kent’s campus, like the closure of identity centers, Nica Delgado, vice president of Kent State’s OSA chapter and library/ information graduate student, said in a press release how she fears the compact will “destroy what is left of our universities.”
“This loyalty oath is asking our institutions to sacrifice their students’ futures for political favors and vague funding promises,” she said. “Neither Ohio nor our nation can take another blow to higher education. Now is the time to stand tall in the face of adversity. Reject the compact. Defend your students.”
The compact was initially sent to nine colleges, — Kent not being one of them — and the university had said nothing on the matter of the compact, whether it would be in favor of it or not.
Adriana Gasiewski is editor-in-chief. Contact her at [email protected].
Natalia Griffiths is art director. Contact her at [email protected].
