At the Dartmouth Student Government’s meeting on Oct. 12, DSG members and other Dartmouth students discussed the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” — a list of demands received by the College and eight other universities on Oct. 1 that would provide privileged funding access conditional on compliance with federal demands.
Participant Noor Boukari ’26 called for DSG to respond by holding a student referendum for students to vote in support of or against the statement, “We want the President to not fold to Trump’s commands and reject the compact.” Boukari said she was concerned that the compact was a “fascist takeover” of the College and that the response from administration and students has not been “proportionate to the impacts of what this compact would be.”
“It [the referendum] would allow students to actually share their voices on the impact and get some numbers on that,” she added. “If we have hard numbers that students are not okay with this, or how students are dealing with this compact, I think that would significantly help.”
On Oct. 9, student body vice president Favion Harvard ’26 signed a joint statement opposing the compact alongside the student governments of seven of the nine universities asked to sign the compact by the Trump administration, according to student body president Sabik Jawad ’26.
The joint statement criticized the compact for “alter[ing] the mission” and “erod[ing] the independence” of higher education.
“Our administrations have been presented with a false choice between their commitments to knowledge and education and our access to the resources that sustain them,” the statement said. “To preserve our status as world leaders in education, we must remain true to the foundation of academic freedom that has propelled us forward.”
At the end of the public session, Jawad suggested a week-long voting period for the student referendum along with campaigning for the referendum during the week to increase voter turnout, which received popular vocal support from senators and members of the public who were present.
North Park senator Jude Poirier ’28 said he was in support of a student referendum to “gauge what students think.”
“Not all students come to our meetings, and I think it’s important to get a population voice on this,” Poirier explained.
DSG also discussed the upcoming senate election for the Class of 2029, the campaigning period for which will begin on Oct. 21.
General senator Ikenna Nwafor ’27 expressed concern about voter turnout, noting that the turnout rate was “very low” among freshmen and sophomores in previous elections. He proposed using the DSG budget to fund initiatives that would increase voter turnout in future elections.
“We can find a framework that works for the ’29 class and can apply that later on in the spring,” Nwafor said. “I think this is an opportunity to think of something and use that to make voter turnout higher.”
The senators voted unanimously to pass the attendance policy amendment proposed during the second DSG meeting this term, which stated that senators and executives who miss four total committee or public meetings in a term would be impeached.
In the closed session, three inactive senators were removed through a virtual vote.
DSG Senate meetings occur weekly on Sundays at 7 p.m. in Collis 101 and are open to all students.
