(C) Arizona Mirror This story was originally published by Arizona Mirror and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . ‘How are we an enemy?’: UA community speaks out against Trump administration compact [1] ['Carolina Cuellar Arizona Luminaria', 'Shondiin Silversmith', 'More From Author', 'October', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img'] Date: 2025-10-16 Kendall Wilde was enjoying her lunch by the University of Arizona student union when the chants began. “Fees go high, dreams go low. Garimella’s greed has got to go!” Curious — Wilde, a graduate student in the College of Science — found a crowd of students, faculty and campus workers gathered for a midday “teach-in” organized by the United Campus Workers of Arizona. The rally, one of several this week, called on university leaders to reject a proposed compact from the Trump administration that would tie federal funding to the president’s political priorities. “Chant so Garimella can hear you!” union President Marcos Esparza shouted as he led the chants.And when he called for audience members to speak, Wilde felt compelled. “This compact is an insult to future scientists. This insult [says] we cannot continue to learn simple and complex scientific methods and research all because it does not cater to a certain administration’s wants and needs,” she said on stage. Wilde said she feels her area of study is disparaged by the Trump administration and her department is losing funding because of it. “It feels dehumanizing to me and to people who specialize in [climatology] to be seen as an enemy of an administration just for simply understanding or simply wanting to ask questions about earth systems around them and what we can do to help families that are actually impacted by heavy storms or by heavy climate or we want to answer and ask questions,” Wilde said after she spoke. “How are we an enemy to an administration? And why does that determine if we get funding or not?” Frog hats and frog-centered anti-compact signs speckled the modest crowd as faculty and students took turns taking the stage — the frog theme an ode to the costumes taking over protests in Portland. Like Wilde, Nolan Cabrera, a professor in the College of Education, was not originally slated to speak but chose to answer the call to the audience. Cabrera rejected the notion that the deal was even a compact. “A compact means we actually have an agreement to do something,” he said. “This says, let us take over the entire university from a conservative point of view and you might get some funding. You might get preferential treatment for it — it’s a load of horse crap.” Cabrera decried UA President Garimella’s silence on the compact. “The idea that runs through the central administration is that if we’re quiet, if we bend the knee, if we keep our heads down, then it’ll make us no longer a target. Unfortunately, we already are a target. We don’t have any choice but to fight,” Cabrera said. Speakers at the teach-in focused on more than just the compact. They spoke of the university administrations’ actions to appease the Trump administration, including closing the cultural center. Kristen Godfrey was the previous director for LGBTQ+ affairs on campus before they were laid off this summer. Godfrey said they were one of many people who lost their jobs amid the wave of the university’s anti-DEI actions at the behest of the Trump administration. “This administration and the Board of Regents were willing to throw working class oppressed people under the bus as soon as Trump’s inauguration, not just this semester,” they said. This is the second of three events this week in opposition to the compact. On Friday, a coalition of the nine campuses that were sent the compact are holding a national day of action urging their university administrations not to sign. MIT rejected the compact outright as did Brown on Wednesday, though none of the other seven universities, including UA, have announced a decision. On Sunday, Oct. 12, President Trump offered the agreement to universities across the country in a Truth Social post. Garimella released an unsigned statement on Oct. 9, recognizing “that this proposal has generated a wide range of reactions and perspectives within our community and beyond” and promising to keep the “community informed as this process moves forward.” The University of Arizona has not responded to Arizona Luminaria’s request for information on how students, faculty and staff can share feedback about the compact. Miranda Schubert, one of the union’s founding members and current Ward 6 city council candidate, was the final speaker at the rally. She said the Tucson City Council, which she hopes to join, came out with their own resolution against the compact. “Voting at all levels of government is really important and something that very much impacts the situation that we’re in right now,” she said. City council member Rocque Perez of Ward 5 and Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz of Ward 1 put forth a resolution, calling it an “unacceptable act of federal interference that undermines local control, academic freedom, and opportunity for our residents.” They urged UA leadership to reject the deal. Schubert wrapped up the teach-in by calling for people to vote in the upcoming election. “There’s no doubt about it, this compact is about control, and it’s about limiting academic freedom and education, limiting the conversations that we’re having with our friends and neighbors to build solidarity and seeking to separate and exhaust us and disappoint us and make us feel like there’s nothing that we can do,” Schubert said. “But we can’t let that happen.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://azmirror.com/2025/10/16/how-are-we-an-enemy-ua-community-speaks-out-against-trump-administration-compact/ Published and (C) by Arizona Mirror Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/azmirror/