Civic Education News Roundup: The Trump Compact for Higher Ed meets resistance, UVA's Democracy360 sessions are streaming, and October is packed with events.
October 20, 2025
On the Trump Administration Compact for Higher Education:
Missed Danielle’s column on the Compact, or the followup? Check them out!
National coverage:
White House Meets With New Colleges About ‘Compact’ After Rejections: Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Kansas and Arizona State are invited to weigh in after MIT, others turn down proposal | By Douglas Belkin, Natalie Andrews and Eliza Collins for the Wall Street Journal, Updated Oct. 17, 2025
As Compact Deadline Nears, White House Meets With University Leaders: The meeting follows increasingly forceful pushback to the wide-ranging proposal, including a joint statement from 36 higher ed groups. | By Katherine Knott for Inside Higher Ed, October 17, 2025
Trump Ramps Up Pressure, Extends Higher Ed Compact To All Institutions | Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes, October 15, 2025
What to Know About Trump’s Funding ‘Compact’ for Colleges | by Miranda Jeyaretnam for Time Magazine, October 14, 2025
How The Trump Admin’s Attack on Higher Education and DEI Are Impacting Campuses | By Mary Retta for Teen Vogue, October 10, 2025
Organizational statements:
Statement by Higher Education Associations in Opposition to Trump Administration Compact | October 17, 2025
A Higher Education Compact in Action | By Bobbie Laur, Campus Compact President, Oct. 14, 2025
Statement Of AAU President Barbara R. Snyder On The Administration’s Higher Education Compact, October 10, 2025
Opinion:
Trump’s college compact is a trap: The administration is hoping to divide and conquer America’s universities. Schools need to unite and keep saying no | by Jordan Weissmann for The Argument, Oct 17, 2025
Donald Trump Isn’t a University President. His higher-education ‘compact’ is a case of federal overreach, even if some of its ideas are good. | By Lamar Alexander, former United States Secretary of Education, former Governor of Tennessee, and trustee (and alumnus) at Vanderbilt, for the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 16, 2025
Trump’s Troubling ‘Compact’ for Universities | Letter to the editor from the leaders of UPenn’s AAUP, New York Times, in response to Marc Rowan’s op ed, Oct. 16, 2025
Our Politics Differ, But We Agree: Trump’s ‘Compact’ Violates Academic Freedom: Using federal funding to dictate who colleges admit and what faculty can say crosses a dangerous line. | Opinion by Professors Robert P. George, Tom Ginsburg, Robert C. Post, David M. Rabban, Jeannie Suk Gersen, and Keith E. Whittington for the Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 2025
The Logical End Point of Trump’s Higher-Education Agenda”: A “compact” offered by the administration could devastate racial diversity at elite universities. | By Kevin Carey for The Atlantic, October 15, 2025
Trump’s higher education ‘compact’ is an attempt to extort universities | Opinion By Erwin Chemerinsky (Berkeley Law dean) to The Sacramento Bee, October 14, 2025
Inside the Trump Administration’s Assault on Higher Education: How conservatives learned to stop worrying and love federal power. | By Emma Green for the New Yorker, October 13, 2025
Join a Loyalty Club for Higher Education—While You Still Can! | by Michael Roth for The Nation, October 14, 2025
Trump’s “Compact” With Colleges Will Put University Presidents in Legal Jeopardy | By Ben Olinsky, Viviann Anguiano, Devon Ombres for the Center for American Progress, Oct 10, 2025
Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump’s “Compact” | By Walter Olson for the Cato Institute, October 10, 2025
Why Trump’s Compact for Higher Education Has Bipartisan Potential | By Jenna Silber Storey and Benjamin Storey for American Enterprise Institute AEIdeas, October 09, 2025
Digging deeper:
A Brief Legal Analysis of the Department of Education’s Proposed Compact for Higher Education: The Department of Education’s proposed Compact for Higher Education is unconstitutional and should be unequivocally rejected by universities. | By Amanda Shanor & Serena Mayeri for the Knight First Amendment Institute, October 15, 2025
What Trump’s Compact Means for College Finances: The benefits of signing on are vague. The costs are clear. | By Brendan Cantwell for the Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025
In Declining Compact, Colleges Try to Leverage ‘Merit’ to Turn the Tables on Trump | By Kate Hidalgo Bellows and Claire Murphy for the Chronicle of Higher Education, October 17, 2025
Why Does the Trump Compact Talk About Grading? The desire for objective grades connects to broader ideas about merit. | By Beckie Supiano for the Chronicle of Higher Education, October 15, 2025
GW to confer with Board, key advisers on Trump’s funding compact | By Gianna Jakubowski for the GW Hatchet, October 16, 2025
WashU meets with White House to discuss Trump higher ed compact Coby Rinke and Aliza Lubitz for Washington University in St. Louis’ Student Life, October 17, 2025
Michigan State U.: Faculty Senate rejects Trump admin ‘compact’: Move comes as feds offer all schools funding preference in return for supporting the President’s higher education agenda | by Emilio Perez Ibarguen, October 15, 2025
University of Arizona president breaks silence on White House compact | by Prerana Sannappanavar for Tucson Daily, Oct 12, 2025
America250 and US Department of Education Grants:
James Madison University awarded more than $2.1 million from the U.S. Department of Education to advance civics education. JMU will host a series of expert-led seminars focused on America’s founding principles, constitutional study, and civil discourse in collaboration with local school districts and community partners.
Florida State University’s Institute for Governance and Civics (IGC) has been awarded a $1.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to launch the Founding Voices project, an initiative designed to transform civics education by engaging middle school students with immersive, historically accurate portrayals of America’s Founding Era figures.
The Jack Miller Center is thrilled to announce the Teaching America250 Awards thanks to generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Teaching America250 Awards will allow 50 teachers across the country to develop and implement engaging educational projects focused on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Select winners will be chosen to participate in the Civic Learning Week National Forum or JMC’s National Summit on Civic Education in the spring of 2026. Apply by November 16.
University of Northern Iowa lands $1.2M to train Iowa educators on teaching civics | by Vanessa Miller for The Gazette, Oct. 9, 2025 - “A year after the University of Northern Iowa established its new Center for Civic Education in response to directives from the Board of Regents and lawmakers, the center this week landed a $1.22 million American History and Civics Education-Seminars grant from the U.S. Department of Education. That money will support the center’s creation of a new “Iowa Civic Educators Institute” aimed at strengthening civic education across the state — not just at UNI.”
The Sputnik moment for civics in North Carolina public education | By Frank Hill for the North State Journal, October 9, 2025 - “the School of Civic Life and Leadership (SCiLL) at UNC Chapel Hill won a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to teach civics to educators and students across the state.”
New publications:
de Vries, M., Kim, J.Y. & Han, H. The unequal landscape of civic opportunity in America. Nature Human Behavior 8, 256–263 (2024).
Centering Community Colleges in Civic Engagement and Local Deliberation | Brief by Hollie Russon Gilman, Sarah Jacob, Elena Souris, and Logan Hage for New America, Aug. 14, 2025
2025 Gen-z Campus Listening from Project 26 PA - focus groups at 16 Pennsylvania colleges and universities
Shaping Civic Futures (Strategic Plan for Higher Education & Democracy Organizational Release), Project Pericles
Opinion:
Toward the Next American University: A Roundtable Discussion on the Future of Higher Ed. In this series commissioned by Dennis M. Hogan, contributors explore the challenges faced in higher ed under Trump 2.0—and concrete, achievable, and actionable ways to fix them. Public Books, October 6, 2025.
Toward the Higher- and Secondary-Ed Alliance! | By Anna E. Clark for Public Books, October 10, 2025
The world is rethinking democracy. So is America. | By Civic Nebraska, October 8, 2025 - a response to Pew’s September 2025 report on “Attitudes toward reforming the political system,” by Richard Wike, Janell Fetterolf, Jonathan Schulman and Sofia Hernandez Ramones
Experiential Civic Learning Is Key to Reviving American Democracy: New bipartisan task force urges hands-on civic education to build youth leadership and democratic skills. By Hans Zeiger for The Fulcrum, October 13, 2025
The Wrong Kind of Civic Education: Our perpetual cycle of shutdowns, shakedowns, and deficits is teaching our youth all the wrong lessons about American principles | by Frederick Hess for Education Next, October 15, 2025
News & stories:
Big Funders Pour $56 Million Into Civics at a Fractured Moment, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Sept. 15, 2025
School District of Philadelphia is relaunching its Parent and Family University | by Violet Comber-Wilen for Billy Penn (WHYY), September 30, 2025 - civic engagement, financial literacy, and other resources for participating schools’ caregivers
New Bill: Senator Angus S. King Jr. introduces S. 2841: Constitution and Civics Education Is Valuable In Community Schools Act of 2025 | By Quiver LegislationRadar, Oct. 2, 2025
Illinois ‘Democracy Schools’ see strong civics education as a way past political polarization | By Peter Medlin for Northern Public Radio, October 6, 2025
Civics Education Struggles, Even as Government and Politics Saturate Daily Life | By Alina Tugend for the New York Times, Oct. 7, 2025
$2M Grant Establishes Election Resilience Lab at UMD | A new University of Maryland lab will work to boost the capacity of election offices to administer these contests crucial to our democracy, thanks to a four-year, $2.3 million grant from the Election Trust Initiative (ETI)
Action Alert: Submit Comments on Proposed Patriotic Education Funding Priority | October 13, 2025 - The American Historical Association (AHA), National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), and Organization of American Historians (OAH) jointly encourage our members and other supporters of a full account of history to submit comments to the federal register by October 17, 2025.
Democracy360 Opens with a Call to Imagine and Build Together | Karsh Institute, University of Virginia, Oct 15, 2025
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Lesson in Civics: The School of Civic Life and Leadership’s hiring battle spilled into the public and prompted a university investigation. It’s part of a long-running rupture about the mission of civics schools around the country. | by Matt Hartman for The Assembly NC, October 9, 2025
Watch & listen:
Democracy360 at the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia.
Watch a special edition of Washington Week from PBS NewsHour presented as part of the Democracy 360 event hosted by the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia.
Teaching Democracy: A Hands-On Approach to Civics | Inside California Education by PBS KVIE, October 8, 2025
Danielle Allen, Guest Lecture: The Declaration of Independence Today: Why an Old Text Still Serves Us Now | Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Terms of Engagement Podcast: Is Trump’s higher education compact a bad deal but a good opportunity? Danielle Allen joins Archon Fung and Stephen Richer on Terms of Engagement, October 14, 2025
Opportunities for students:
The Intergenerational Leadership Accelerator Program is a new fellowship for emerging leaders aged 18–30 who are driving, leading, or championing intergenerational initiatives. Apply by October 31.
2026 Civic Season Design Fellowship from Made By Us - shaping America’s 250th. Info session on September 30, applications due by November 1.
iCivics and the Bill of Rights Institute’s Civic Star Challenge, first drawing deadline on October 31, 2025. Enter to be a Civic Star Champion after incorporating one of the themes of the Declaration of Independence into your classroom and earn cash prizes for your classroom!
Project Pericles’ Civic Story Lab is taking applications from teams of faculty, community partners, and students for grants to share stories of civic transformation. Apply by November 10.
Institute for Citizens & Scholars is taking applications to join their Youth Advisory Council (YAC) through November 3.
The Campus Vote Project is taking applications for student Democracy Fellows (part time, paid)
The Presidential AI Challenge is a national challenge where K-12 youth, educators, mentors, and community teams come together to solve real-world problems in their communities using AI-powered solutions with an opportunity to showcase their solutions at a national level. Submissions are due by January 20, 2026.
Upcoming Events:
Expanding the Entryways: What High School Civic Engagement Research Shows Us about the Next Generation of Civic Leaders | Campus Compact webinar, Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM ET
Community Engaged Scholarship Revealed: Meet the authors of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning | Campus Compact webinar, Wednesday, October 22, 2025, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM ET - centers Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)
Johns Hopkins University SOURCE Service-Learning Academy | Wednesday, October 22nd at 1:00 PM ET - SLA is a year-long, comprehensive, cohort-based program that trains health professional faculty and community leaders together in critical service-learning pedagogy, equipping them with the necessary tools and methods to develop transformational partnerships and courses.
How to Be ALL IN | virtual conversation from ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, October 23, 2PM Eastern
A History Teach-In In Defense of History and Museums | October 26th, Washington DC | Sunup to Sundown | Organized by the folks behind history podcasts The Memory Palace and This Day.
Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) Annual Conference (October 26–29, Baltimore, MD)
Place-Based Justice Network Fall Salon: “This Class Should Not Be Required: CIVC 101 at Drexel University” | Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at 1:00pm-2:00pm PT/4:00pm-5:00pm ET
Bring Your Students Into a National Conversation on Voting & Representation | Presented by ALL IN and Unify America, Monday, November 3 at 2:00 and 5:00pm ET - Get your students talking — and thinking — about democracy. This one-hour national event pairs students from different schools and perspectives for one-on-one conversations about elections, representation, and what civic engagement really means.
Info Session: Facing History School & District Programs | Facing History And Ourselves, November 6 or December 4, 2025
Collaborative Discussion to Action: Working Collaboratively to Address Complex Community Issues With Dr. Lori Britt | Interactivity Foundation, 2 pm to 6 pm (Eastern) on Wednesdays November 5 and 12
Campus Compact Fall 2025 Coalition Conversations: Navigating Uncertainty in Higher Ed | November 7 & December 5, 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
Filling the Practice-Theory Gap: Engaged Scholarship and the Imperative of the Scholar-Practitioner | Partners for Campus-Community Engagement (PCCE) webinar facilitated by Patrick M. Green (Loyola U. Chicago), November 12th from 12:00 – 1:00 PM.
Theory to Practice: Co-creation and Participatory Democracy at Work with Sinda Nichols, Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement at Carleton College. Place-Based Justice Network Purposeful Action Series, Thursday, November 13 at 11:00am-12:00pm PT/2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Introduction to the Collaborative Discussion Project Toolkit | Interactivity Foundation, November 18 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) Anchor Learning Network 2026 kick-off: Workforce development and the anchor mission | December 3, 2025 3:00 pm EST – 4:00 pm EST
ASU Project ACCLaIM: Advancing Civics Curriculum Learning through Instructional Microcredentials focuses on professional development for K–12 teachers in the areas of American history, civics and media literacy via a comprehensive microcredential program. New cohort begins in January.
We the People: National Symposium on Civic Education Research hosted by The Center for Civic Education and the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL) , Washington, D.C., March 6–7, 20