Civic Education News Roundup: Academic freedom under threat, from without and within, and students vote.
Note: this roundup is published in our “Democracy 101” section of The Renovator, along with explainers and other education-related posts. You can subscribe to this section separately (or not), and to other sections of The Renovator, by following these directions. We know you get too many emails, so choose what interests you!
In case you missed our post last week:
Step Outside the Ivory Tower, Professors. Your Democracy May Depend on It. The Alliance for Civics in the Academy is bringing together a nationwide network of college faculty devoted to teaching citizenship. The Alliance held their first in a series of monthly webinars last week – check out the recording and register for the December event!
And ACA founder Peter Levine wrote a follow-up post on his own blog, introducing the design challenges from the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy to colleagues in higher ed.
Students vote:
Early Voting Helps Students Break Down Barriers To Our Democracy | by Civic Nation’s Bryce Bennett and Eddy Zerbe for Forbes, Oct 28, 2025
The Cornell Sun’s Editorial Board calls on university leaders to cancel classes on Election Day and make it a University holiday, following 86 other institutions
A student registers to vote on campus in 2012, via Wikimedia Commons
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Academic freedom faces many tests:
How Politics Is Changing the Way History Is Taught | By Dana Goldstein for the New York Times, Oct. 27, 2025
Brown University and the Anti-Defamation League close down curriculum resources for civic education in K12, in response to pressure from the Trump administration. Individual teachers feel that pressure, too.
Curators of Knowledge, Not Chaos | By Gerardo Martí for Inside Higher Ed, October 10, 2025
“Free inquiry” and “academic freedom” means examining ideas and opinions broadly – including the discredited and invalid ones – in order to find the truth, without censorship.
The Chronicle of Higher Ed’s Evan Goldstein interviews two college presidents who recently stepped down: “‘Two People Are in Jail Because of Threats Against Me’: Jonathan Holloway and Ana Mari Cauce on the physical and psychological toll of leading a university in 2025.”
The Trump administration continues negotiations with universities:
National coverage: NPR’s Politics podcast aired a segment reviewing recent events and the Trump administration’s goals. The Wall Street Journal canvassed college students to see what they thought about the compact. Nationwide polling about the compact is negative, reports the Chronicle of Higher Ed.
Penn’s president, Larry Jameson, published the letter he sent to Linda McMahon and the Department of Education, detailing Penn’s alignment with some of the principles behind the Compact as well as their reasons for declining to sign.
Benjamin Fong, Arizona State U’s Associate Director of the Center for Work & Democracy, argues in Inside Higher Ed that the compact’s call for a tuition freeze should be taken seriously and that universities must take action to make higher ed more affordable.
Florida’s New College announces that they will be first to sign the Trump administration compact. The New York Times’ Stephanie Saul notes that “New College has embraced much of the conservative agenda for higher education since 2023, when Mr. DeSantis purged the school’s board and leadership. He said he wanted the school to be modeled after Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan. Mr. DeSantis appointed a Hillsdale dean to the New College board along with Christopher Rufo, a conservative critic of diversity efforts.” However, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities signed onto an ACE statement opposing the compact.
Meanwhile, the University of Virginia signed a different settlement agreement with the Trump administration on October 22. Josh Moody reports for Inside Higher Ed:
“As part of the deal, UVA agreed to follow a July memo from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi that bars the use of race in hiring and admissions practices as well as scholarship programs. UVA will be required to provide “relevant information and data” to the DOJ, according to the news release. …The settlement comes nearly four months after former UVA president James Ryan stepped down abruptly, reportedly under DOJ pressure to resign as part of an effort to resolve investigations.”
The agreement affirms a commitment to academic freedom and civil rights by both parties, but entails an end to DEI programs and the inclusion of trans students in “sex-separated intimate spaces and athletic competitions,” and has been criticized by local press and state Democratic lawmakers.
Wesleyan University president Michael Roth went on CNN to discuss UVA’s deal.
At Williams College, references to the use of race in College’s decision-making on hiring and admissions have been removed from the faculty handbook, by a faculty vote, in an effort to keep federal research funding flowing.
To listen to a discussion about the Trump administration’s proposals for higher ed, check out If it’s a shutdown, why are we so busy? | American Council on Education dotEdu podcast, October 29, 2025
New publications:
Critical Futures: Community-Engaged Research in a Time of Crisis and Social Transformation | by Stuart Poyntz, Kari Grain and Am Johal from University of Toronto Press
The I-ACTED study (investigating action civics training through an experimental design): a cluster randomized controlled trial of a school-based action civics education intervention on adolescent wellbeing. By Alison K. Cohen, Jason C. Fitzgerald, Grisel Trejo, Isabella U. Yalif, Paul D. Wesson, Mark Wolfson, and Parissa J. Ballard for BMC Public Health. October 16, 2025
Upcoming Events:
Info Session: Facing History School & District Programs | Facing History And Ourselves, November 6 or December 4, 2025
Brave Classrooms: Taking on Antisemitism in Schools | Facing History And Ourselves, November 06, 2025 - December 11, 2025
Collaborative Discussion to Action: Working Collaboratively to Address Complex Community Issues With Dr. Lori Britt | Interactivity Foundation, 2 pm to 6 pm (Eastern) on Wednesdays November 5 and 12
Campus Compact Fall 2025 Coalition Conversations: Navigating Uncertainty in Higher Ed | November 7 & December 5, 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET
The Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Coalition and our partners at American University’s Democracy Innovation Lab at the Sine Institute of Policy & Politics invite you to join us for the Solution Summit: Reimagining Education, AI, and the Civic Life, Monday, November 10, 2025, 8:30 – 5:30 PM, at American University Washington College of Law.
On November 12-14, 2025, the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition is proud to host the 10th annual National Student Vote Summit. Build connections with #StudentVote leaders and experts from across the nation. Reflect on what worked in 2025, address emerging challenges together, and leave with practical strategies to bring back to your campus or organization.
Filling the Practice-Theory Gap: Engaged Scholarship and the Imperative of the Scholar-Practitioner | Partners for Campus-Community Engagement (PCCE) webinar facilitated by Patrick M. Green (Loyola U. Chicago), November 12th from 12:00 – 1:00 PM.
Justice Funders and CES (Center for Engaged Scholarship) webinar, Activists and the Academy: Bridging the Divide | Wednesday, November 12, 1:00-2:30 PM
Theory to Practice: Co-creation and Participatory Democracy at Work with Sinda Nichols, Director of the Center for Community and Civic Engagement at Carleton College. Place-Based Justice Network Purposeful Action Series, Thursday, November 13 at 11:00am-12:00pm PT/2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Call to Action: Sustaining Impact through Civic and Community Engagement | CLDE Coalition leaders will join Campus Compact November 17-18, 2025 at Northern Illinois University for working sessions centered on Campus Compact’s forthcoming Campus Action Plan (CAP) framework and the accompanying CLDE Curriculum Planning Guide. Learn more & register. Campus Compact members will pay $45 per individual to participate, with non-members paying $95 per individual.
Introduction to the Collaborative Discussion Project Toolkit | Interactivity Foundation, November 18 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) Anchor Learning Network 2026 kick-off: Workforce development and the anchor mission | December 3, 2025 3:00 pm EST – 4:00 pm EST
ASU Project ACCLaIM: Advancing Civics Curriculum Learning through Instructional Microcredentials focuses on professional development for K–12 teachers in the areas of American history, civics and media literacy via a comprehensive microcredential program. New cohort begins in January.
We the People: National Symposium on Civic Education Research hosted by The Center for Civic Education and the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL), Washington, D.C., March 6–7, 2026