UT Austin students protest against Trump's higher education vision

UT students protest Trump policies

The student organization Austin Students for a Democratic Society put together a rally on campus Monday afternoon.

AUSTIN, Texas - The student organization Austin Students for a Democratic Society put together a rally on campus Monday afternoon. 

UT Austin student rally

What they're saying:

"We're protesting against the compact Trump proposed to UT and eight other schools," said Alfredo Campos, a first-year student and a member of SDS. "The compact is a 10-point document where Trump lays out a list of demands that he wants us to fulfill."

The University of Texas is one of nine higher education institutions that President Donald Trump asked to join a compact. 

The nine-page document is titled Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. It lists a set of operating principles that the schools must abide by or risk losing their preferred access to federal funding. 

Trump's vision for higher education system

The White House reached out to several universities this week, asking them to commit to the President Trump's vision for the nation's higher education system. Some of those colleges are in Texas

"One of the points of the compact was that if we do not create an environment that allows for conservative ideas to kind of flourish, then he will remove the funding we have," said Campos.

Some of the demands include universities remaining politically neutral, not hiring employees based on their skin color or sex, and refunding tuition to students who drop out within the first year. 

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"Some people are going to give speeches," said Campos. "We will be doing chants also. And yeah, the function is to show how the students, the populace of UT, disagree with this." 

During the rally, students chanted and held up signs that read, 'Fight Trump's Agenda,' 'No Trump Takeover: Protect Academic Freedom,' and 'Protesting Isn't A Crime.' 

"The reason that the public disapprove matters is that it creates pressure, right, and it's not just this one protest that leads up to that pressure, it's small actions over a long time, and this is just one of them," said Campos.