by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

April 29, 2025

This story was updated at 2:50 p.m. on April 29.

A Kennesaw State University faculty advisory panel wants to team up with other universities to fight what some call inappropriate political influence from the Trump administration and state leaders.

The university’s faculty Senate voted 30-7 Monday on a resolution to establish a mutual defense compact. Kennesaw students have expressed concerns over the university’s plans to shut down student resource centers that help members of minority groups, apparently as part of a national push against diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

The Trump administration has engaged in a public pressure campaign against elite college campuses over what the president views as left-wing indoctrination as well as student protests over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. State lawmakers are also targeting DEI, including through a bill that would ban programs or activities that promote diversity, equity and inclusion at all grade levels. That bill stalled this year, but will still be active when next year’s session begins in January.

Matthew Boedy, president of the Georgia chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the University System of Georgia is targeting programs associated with DEI.

“That includes any scholarship that is funded by any third party, and then also multicultural offices, and the decades-long African-American Male Initiative, which is a USG thing, every campus version of that is being shut down, and this is all supposed to happen by the end of the academic year or the end of the fiscal year, and they do say that faculty who may have been a part of that or working those things will be reassigned, but there’s no guarantee that staff would be reassigned. That has been the USG directive to all schools here in the last two weeks or so.”

According to the KSU faculty Senate’s resolution, faculty senates from institutions across the country have recommended joining such a compact, including Rutgers University, Indiana University, the University of Nebraska, Michigan State University, Yale and UMass Amhurst.

Member institutions would “commit meaningful support—financial, legal, organizational, and/or strategic—to a shared or distributed defense infrastructure designed to respond immediately and collectively to attacks by the governmental actors on any member institution,” according to the resolution.

The KSU faculty Senate is an advisory board to the university’s president, Kathy Schwaig, and would need her approval to actually join.

Boedy didn’t mince words on the likelihood of that happening.

“This is a symbolic move,” he said. “The faculty Senate is asking the university administration to participate in legal filings, amicus briefs, defending academic freedom, using state funds, their institutional funds, to do this. Whether or not these presidents will actually do this is not an open question – they’re not going to do this, at least in the USG. So I would say it’s a symbolic move, but it is also a very powerful, powerful symbolic move for the Senate to say, ‘You’re not doing this, and you need to do this.’”

Boedy said he expects other university faculties across the nation to take similar actions, though he’s not aware of any others in Georgia with concrete plans.

“To be honest with you, part of the debate was what are the consequences for signing on to this? Would there be political or state consequences for signing on to this?” he said. “That’s a real concern for many faculty, even though the vote at Kennesaw was overwhelming, that was a concern.”

The University System of Georgia responded to a request for comment with a statement:

“The University System of Georgia (USG) and our 26 public colleges and universities treat everyone equally. We do not discriminate for or against anyone. Over the past two years, the system’s governing Board of Regents has strengthened policies designed to uphold those values. In keeping with the expectations of the federal administration, USG complies with all state and federal regulations to ensure decisions are based on merit and equal opportunity for all.”

The Recorder has reached out to Kennesaw State for comment. Check back for updates and read the resolution below.

FS Resolution to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact

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