NEW BRUNSWICK—Three unions representing more than 10,000 educators, researchers, clinicians, and others at Rutgers University are calling on the university to reject the Trump administration’s “compact” offered to higher education, saying that it would stifle the freedom to teach and learn at the center of the public university’s mission.

Colleges and universities that accept what unions are calling a “loyalty oath” would get preferential treatment and priority access to federal funds in return for imposing the Trump administration’s agenda for higher education, including gender definitions that discriminate against trans students and employees, restrictions on international student enrollment, and bans on criticizing “conservative ideas.”

The US Department of Education issued the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” earlier this month to nine universities. Last week, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that MIT would not cooperate with the administration scheme. The deal has now been offered to all colleges and universities, according to a Bloomberg report.

“It’s in tense times that we see the real measure of an institution,” said Heather Pierce, president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents nearly 3,000 lecturers on Rutgers’ three main campuses. “While we may have differed with previous Rutgers presidents on certain issues, they have always stood steadfast on academic freedom and free speech protections for faculty, students, and staff, and we supported them for taking a strong position.”

“We expect nothing less of Rutgers today,” Pierce said. “Acquiescence to those in power undermines our democracy and our basic rights to speech and expression. We call on Rutgers to reject this ‘compact.’”

Rebecca Givan, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents some 6,000 full-time faculty, graduate workers, and others, said the Trump offer to universities “not only harms our campus communities, it’s unlawful, as it violates provisions of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. It also violates our union contract language on academic freedom and nondiscrimination. No university should sign this illegal ‘compact’; instead, we have to work together to protect our members, students, and communities.”

Dr. Catherine Monteleone, president of AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents Rutgers biomedical health science faculty at facilities across New Jersey, said, “The compact isn’t workable. If adopted, the visa caps would likely mean our labs and research would shut down. Even if it was not morally and legally wrong, the fiscal constraints make it not feasible.”