The culture wars have reached a new zenith as the Trump administration is now demanding that nine top universities dismantle academic departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.” This extraordinary demand is a key component of a 10-point “compact” that offers federal funds in exchange for ideological allegiance, a move that critics say amounts to a government-sanctioned purge of dissenting academic fields.
The proposal, sent to schools like the University of Arizona and MIT, represents a direct government intervention into university curricula and departmental structure. It tasks university administrators with identifying and eliminating entire fields of study based on their perceived political leanings. This has raised alarms about a new era of McCarthyism in academia, where intellectual inquiry is judged not by its rigor but by its conformity to a political agenda.
The mechanism for enforcement is financial. Adherence to the compact promises a windfall of federal grants, while refusal means a complete cut-off from government funding. This puts university leaders in an untenable position, as many of the departments likely to be targeted—such as those in gender studies, critical race theory, or sociology—are integral parts of a modern liberal arts education.
The reaction from the academic community has been one of shock and defiance. Ted Mitchell of the American Council on Education called the implications “horrifying,” highlighting the danger of the federal government becoming the arbiter of acceptable thought. The proposal is seen as a direct attack on the university’s role as a place for challenging conversations and the exploration of diverse, and sometimes controversial, perspectives.
This demand to scrap departments is the most aggressive element of a broader plan to install “government-mandated conservative ideology” on campus. Paired with requirements to ban race-conscious admissions and freeze tuition, the compact signals a clear intent to use the full weight of the federal government to prosecute the culture war on the grounds of America’s most prestigious academic institutions.