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A new movement is gaining traction across the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) — and it’s not happening on the field. Faculty senates at several Big Ten universities, including Rutgers University, Indiana University Bloomington and the University of Michigan, have introduced a mutual defense compact designed to protect “academic collaboration, research excellence, and commitment to democratic values and shared governance.”
The proposal calls on member schools to adopt a formal alliance to resist policies that undermine the core values of higher education.
“USC’s senate is planning to vote on May 7 to endorse the shared values statement that originated among the Big Ten senate leaders and now is being considered among schools outside the conference,” the USC Academic Senate said in a statement to Annenberg Media.
The compact, as outlined in the Rutgers University Senate resolution, aims to create a unified front among Big Ten institutions. It proposes coordinated legal public relations and policy responses to protect academic inquiry from state or federal overreach. By doing so, the alliance would act as both a protection and a statement for academic freedom.
The pact comes in light of the recent Trump administration decision to cancel $400 million in federal grants to Columbia University in March. The administration cited the school’s lack of action against antisemitic harassment in an explanation for the cancellation. Similar to Columbia, other universities including Cornell University and Northwestern had grants frozen totaling $1 billion and $790 million respectively.
As one of the newest members in the Big Ten Conference, the University of Southern California finds itself in a unique position. USC is not only a powerhouse in research and academics, ranking 27th in the recent U.S. News ranking for universities, it is also a prominent private institution in a conference of predominantly public universities.
USC joined the Big Ten Conference officially in 2024, along with UCLA, expanding the alliance’s geographic reach to the West Coast and bringing a different institutional structure to the table. As a private university, USC is not subject to the same kind of direct political interference from the state that public schools like Indiana or Michigan might face.
Should USC choose to participate in the compact, it may face a different set of considerations than its public counterparts. As a private university, USC is not subject to state-level funding decisions, but the school remains heavily dependent on federal grants receiving $1.35 billion in federal funding in 2024 as well as $650 million for student financial aid and $569 million for research.
In response to ongoing financial uncertainty tied to federal support, USC Provost Andrew T. Guzman said, “Recent developments require us to take additional steps to increase our financial resilience in the face of exceptional financial uncertainty.”
His comments were published in a Los Angeles Times article about USC’s hiring freeze and planning efforts following Trump administration threats to withdraw funding from universities.
Similar to other Big Ten institutions who have already joined the alliance, the faculty-elected Academic Senate has the authority to introduce or vote on whether USC should adopt the compact.
For now, the movement remains at the faculty level. No formal BTAA-wide resolution has been passed and each university must vote independently.
This story has been updated to include a statement from the Big Ten Academic Alliance, “The Big Ten Academic Alliance did not contribute to and has not endorsed the Rutgers University Senate’s recent resolution, or similar resolutions, calling for a “mutual defense compact” across Big Ten Academic Alliance universities.
None of the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s Board of Directors, its elected Officers, or its staff were involved in, contributed to, or were consulted about, the creation, formulation, or passage of the resolution by the Rutgers University Senate. Further, while Rutgers University is a member of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, the resolution does not represent the position of the Big Ten Academic Alliance, nor is it binding on the Big Ten Academic Alliance or any of its member institutions.
The Big Ten Academic Alliance views the Rutgers University Senate resolution as a matter internal to Rutgers University and, consistent with Big Ten Academic Alliance policy, we do not comment on internal matters at our member institutions."