The Compact Calls for a Unified “F You”
When was the last time you checked your F You account? This personal escrow is the financial cushion—or your Plan B, akin to retirement, a career change or going back to your home country—that you liquidate if your job pushes you beyond your moral limit. Your account balance measures how effective you can be in your job and still be able to live with yourself.
A university president explained the concept of the F You account to the presidents and provosts gathered at Inside Higher Ed’s inaugural U.S. Universities Summit this week at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. In light of the political and financial pressures on the college presidency, the president encouraged their peers to be ready to give up the job if they were forced to make decisions they didn’t agree with. They also worried about early-career and first-generation leaders who would be less able to walk away from a job. “I can always retire, but they can’t,” the president said.
Even before the Trump administration started freezing federal funds and issuing ultimatums to institutions, presidents needed F You accounts. Our survey of university presidents earlier this year showed that just 56 percent thought the modern college presidency was a job that one person can reasonably handle. The average length of a college presidency has dropped to just under six years. Still, nearly 90 percent of presidents surveyed by IHE said they enjoy the job.
However, the academic compact President Trump extended to all higher ed institutions via Truth Social this week may force leaders to resign. The agreement would require institutions to freeze tuition for the next five years; commit to public assessments of viewpoint diversity among all faculty, students and staff; and use standardized tests in admissions, among other demands.
Boards of trustees—not presidents—will make the ultimate decision whether to sign the deal. At the IHE event, one president at a public institution in a “candy apple–red state” said a trustee urged them to sign the compact to gain a competitive advantage on federal research funds. That decision might make sense from a business point of view, but it doesn’t for someone concerned about institutional autonomy. Two state lawmakers in Iowa asked the Iowa Board of Regents to join the compact “as soon as possible.” Several leaders said if their board of trustees or state leadership made them sign it, they would quit. But individuals quitting in protest won’t stop boards from signing the deal—they’ll just hire new leaders who will comply. Disruption at the leadership level harms the entire institution. Meanwhile, thousands of faculty and staff without F You accounts will be stuck at institutions that have agreed to the terms.
It’s very likely that some colleges will sign the compact, and that will erode the independence of the entire sector. Higher ed should look to media companies as a model of collective resistance. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presented a similar deal to news organizations covering Pentagon briefings: agree to not access or solicit information the Defense Department doesn’t make available to you or lose your press credentials. On Monday, every major news organization rallied around their shared values and gave a united response: “No.”
“Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon’s new requirements, which would restrict journalists’ ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues,” CNN and Fox News wrote in a joint statement.
If ever there was a time for community colleges, independent nonprofits, public R-1s and the Ivy League to speak with one voice, it’s now. Trump’s compact compromises the foundations of higher education—free inquiry, academic freedom and institutional autonomy. The sector’s strength will be in a collective response, not individual presidents resigning in protest. Higher ed should pool its F You accounts and refuse the deal collectively.
