Open Letter to University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella

Below is an open letter from our union demanding University of Arizona's President Suresh Garimella reject Trump's Higher Ed Compact.

Approved by the UCWAZ CWA Local 7065 Executive Committee and released publicly on Tuesday, October 14th 2025.

The Trump administration has asked the University of Arizona to pledge its loyalty to the Presidential administration in exchange for preferential treatment. A ten-point compact, initially sent to nine universities and now sent to all US colleges, asks for compliance with the federal government’s partisan agenda in exchange for ill-defined benefits, which may include access to student loans, research funding, approval of student and worker visas, and preferential tax treatment. President Garimella, if you commit to these ten points, you will bring an end to shared governance, academic freedom, and democracy at the University of Arizona.

Signing onto the compact would allow the federal government to determine which students are admitted, which workers are hired, which courses and programs are offered, and which viewpoints students and workers are allowed to express on campus. The compact even attempts to impose government control over the university's finances, requiring the cutting of so-called "unnecessary costs” at a time when significant budget cuts have already harmed students and workers. Agreeing to this sweeping right-wing wishlist will give the federal government broad and vaguely defined powers over every aspect of campus life. We know that if the University of Arizona folds under pressure, the Trump administration will not stop its demands. It is a serious miscalculation to sign onto or attempt to negotiate a unilaterally imposed deal offered by a fickle presidential administration, which can be rescinded at any moment, upon which the university must return “all monies advanced by the U.S. government during the year of any violation.”

President Garimella, by Nov. 7, 2025, we call on you to publicly reject Trump’s Loyalty Oath to protect our students and workers at the University of Arizona.

The compact takes a concerningly hostile and dehumanizing stance towards international students and workers, whom the Trump administration views as a “national security risk.” President Garimella, if you sign this compact, the university would cap the number of international undergraduate students admitted, “screen out” these students based on their perceived political beliefs, and “share all known information about foreign students, including discipline records… with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State.” The university would submit detailed financial reports to federal law enforcement, which would be used to investigate international research and student activism. You must protect our international community from dangerous levels of government surveillance and suspicion.

The compact demands the use of “lawful force” and “swift, serious, and consistent sanctions” against those who take actions which “delay or disrupt class instruction.” This vaguely defined criterion, which could be interpreted to apply to any student demonstration, requires the university to violently shut down a peaceful protest at the government's will, or else risk losing federal funding. In a similar vein, the compact attempts to prohibit all university employees from “speech relating to societal and political events” while acting “in their capacity as university representatives.” It remains unclear exactly how these wide-ranging restrictions on student demonstrations and employee speech would be interpreted. However, it is clear that agreement to this compact would allow the Trump administration to suppress First Amendment rights on our campus. Specifically, the compact requires “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” as deemed by the Trump administration. Do not let the whims of the U.S. president dictate the course of learning, scholarship, and scientific research. Protect academic freedom and protect our constitutional right to free expression.

In opposition to an "intellectually open campus environment," the compact demands the university “commit to defining and otherwise interpreting ‘male,’ ‘female,’ ‘woman,’ and ‘man’ according to reproductive function and biological processes." Such an imposition on language seeks to eliminate transgender students and workers from our campus life, limit transgender people’s access to health care at our hospital system, and halt medical and social research that maintains a more complex definition of gender.

Committing to these ten alarming points - which uplift far-right viewpoints above all others, severely limit international student and worker access to our institutions, suppress student and employee speech, and target transgender campus members - would detrimentally change campus life at the University of Arizona and set a dangerous precedent for other higher education institutions. Public universities like the University of Arizona should not capitulate to the whims of a government that actively targets freedom of speech and academic freedom on college campuses.

Thousands of colleges and universities have received this loyalty oath. It is our time to resist, to stand together, and to reject this anti-democratic, anti-student, and anti-worker bribe. President Garimella, we call on you to publicly reject Trump’s Loyalty Oath by Nov. 7, 2025. Do the right thing and stand in solidarity with workers and students in higher education, defend the right to learn, and protect our democracy.

Sincerely, 

United Campus Workers of Arizona CWA Local 7065

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