Take Action
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Take Action ///
Now, more than ever, we need to come together to defend higher education, our students, and our communities. Here are a few easy ways to get involved.
PEtition
Ohio’s Universities: REJECT THE COMPACT
The Trump Administration is moving to consolidate control of universities across the nation by extorting our presidents into pledging allegiance to its agenda through the compact. This “loyalty oath” is nothing but a ransom note, demanding our administrators trade our academic freedom and campus independence for vague federal funding promises.
Ohio students, faculty, and alumni must unite in loud opposition. Our campuses can be beacons of academic freedom, educational affordability, and safety for students, rather than allowing Trump to reduce them to pawns in a partisan agenda to take over our campuses.
Sign the petition urging Ohio’s campus administrators to reject the compact.
OUR LETTER:
Dear Ohio’s University Presidents and Boards of Trustees:
We, the people of Ohio, call on you to pledge to reject the Trump Administration’s “Loyalty Oath” compact. As Trump has informally widened his demand to all universities, Ohio’s higher education system is now on the line. If adopted, it would force our schools to restrict enrollment for international students, further restrict protests, and demand that our schools pledge ideological loyalty to the Trump administration. It’s up to each campus’s President and Board of Trustees to decide: cower to the partisan extremists vying to capture political control of our campuses, or pledge to stand up for our universities.
In Ohio, we’ve already seen this extremist agenda unfold on our campuses, with our faculty and students experiencing the most significant impact. The “Advance Ohio Higher Education Act,” Senate Bill 1, gutted our universities, implementing some of the extremist provisions we see in the compact. As a result, our classroom discussions are tense, our classmates fear repression, and our governor is scrambling to find students to fill the beds in our dorms. Our campuses can’t afford another round of extremist overreach.
Rather than preemptively capitulate to a partisan ransom note, our administrators must stand up to the continual attacks on higher education in Ohio and not weaken our campuses further. Tuition is too expensive. Students are struggling to just get by. We condemn any effort by the Presidential administration to pressure our campus leadership into pledging allegiance to Trump’s political agenda in exchange for vague preferential federal funding: freedom and affordability are not an either-or. This deal would sacrifice students’ futures for flimsy authoritarian political favors.
To our knowledge, Ohio universities have not been contacted by the federal government regarding the compact, but every university in the nation has its eyes on this bribe now that MIT bravely rejected it. We encourage our administrators to resist early.
Sign our petition. Reject the compact.
PEtition
Blackout for Higher Ed
We see what’s happening. We’re watching and we’re holding our schools accountable!
Senate Bill 1 killed higher education. On the first Wednesday of classes (August 27th, 2025), we will wear black to mourn the loss. After that, every Friday, we wear black to tell admin their students are watching.
By signing this petition, you commit to:
Hold campus administrators accountable when they fail students
Stand united with students across Ohio
Spread the word because solidarity only grows when we share it
This isn’t about one campus. This is about power, unity, and raising our voices!
Take the pledge. Wear black. Demand better. Students will not be silenced.
After you sign this petition, we’ll connect you to student leaders at your campus OSA Chapter so you have the opportunity to take part in direct action campaigns. If you don't have a chapter, we'll help you start one. You are integral to the student movement – and we want you in our fight to save Higher Education.
OUR LETTER:
Dear University Presidents, Trustees, and Administrators across Ohio,
We, the Ohio Student Association, undersigned students, and allies, write to you with urgency and conviction.
We demand the following by the end of the semester:
1. A public statement from your office acknowledging campus changes and their implications for academic freedom and student belonging.
2. A clear plan to preserve and protect belonging for our marginalized students even as state mandates attempt to dismantle previous support structures.
3. Transparent communication with students about how your institution will respond to this legislation, and what will be done to ensure no student is left behind.
The passage and implementation of Senate Bill 1 has already begun to dismantle the very foundations of equity, belonging, and academic freedom within our public universities. In its wake, students have lost not only programs, centers, and scholarships—but also the sense of community and support that made higher education in Ohio accessible, inclusive, and excellent.
We call on you to protect the spaces, resources, and values that underrepresented students—students of color, LGBTQ+ students, women, veterans, students with disabilities, first-generation and international students—rely on to survive and succeed on our campuses.
We urge you not to overcomply with SB 1– to act in the interest of students rather than in fear of the legislature. Your institutional overcompliance furthers a broader political movement that seeks to erase the progress made toward justice in higher education. History will not look kindly on the silence of complicity in the face of injustice. Students are watching, and we deserve clarity, accountability, and action.
We remind you of your moral obligation as leaders of Ohio’s universities: to stand as beacons of truth, equity, and inclusion in a time of growing political repression and attacks on students. The immense power of your institutions must not be used to appease reactionary agendas, but to affirm the values of education and democracy.
This is only the beginning. Your students are organizing, and we are watching your actions as SB1 strips power away from our beloved universities. Stand with students. Stand for justice.
Sincerely,
The Ohio Student Association