Duke Students Rally on Main Quad to Demand President Price Reject Trump's "Loyalty Oath" Compact

Image credit: Artivista Karlin

DURHAM, NC - On November 7th, the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, student organizers from a coalition of student, affinity, cultural, labor and community organizations under the banner Duke Rise Up, including both local groups and national organizations such as Sunrise Movement and Campus Climate Network, organized a rally on Duke’s Abele Quad demanding President Vincent Price reject the Trump administration’s “loyalty oath” compact made available to universities nationwide, which they say represents an unprecedented federal attack on democracy, academic freedom, and the safety of the entire Duke community.

At the rally, Duke students unfurled an 8-foot banner reading “Duke rise up! Reject the compact,” along with two additional banners demanding “Price: protect your workers” and “Price: protect your students.” About 40 participants held hand signs demanding that Duke protect academic freedom, stand with immigrants, pay their workers a $25 per hour livable wage, protect international students, and protect trans students, as they heard from various speakers about why Duke University must reject the compact.

“This compact is a direct attack on academic freedom, DEI, affinity groups, international students, trans students like myself, and the safety of all students and Durham workers here at Duke,” said Artivista Karlin, an organizer with Sunrise Duke. “We’re calling on President Price to reject the compact and refuse to bend the knee to authoritarianism.”

Abi Human, president of Duke's Jewish Solidarity Movement, shared a song at the rally titled "You Won't Bring The Movement Down," and called upon students to "fight back against the fascist regime our country is descending into."

Other voices on campus have spoken out already to express the student body’s discontent with the compact’s demands, calling on Duke to reject Trump’s compact immediately. 

“We're not here today because we want to see Duke fall short, or because we hate it. Quite the opposite, we want the students, faculty, staff, and community members here to thrive. We hate that it is not being the best it can be, not living up to its mission,” said Connor Ennis, a member of the Duke Climate Coalition.

The rally yesterday was part of a nationwide student day of action under the national Students Rise Up coalition. Peer institutions, including MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, and Penn, have already rejected the Trump administration’s compact following similar student mobilizations. 

Students, faculty, and staff at more than 100 campuses across the US rallied against the Trump administration’s assault on higher education on Friday – the first in a planned series of nationwide, coordinated protests on the first Friday of every month that organizers hope will culminate in large-scale students’ and workers’ strikes next May Day and a nationwide general strike in May 2028.

Despite mounting pressure, Duke University has yet to issue a definitive response. President Vincent Price has called the compact “problematic” but has not publicly refused to sign it. 

Sunrise Duke, Duke Climate Coalition, and coalition partners emphasized that the compact represents an attempt to consolidate federal control over universities, undermining their independence and silencing dissent. 

“Neutrality and silence in times like these is a choice,” said Wendy House from Sunrise Duke. “President Price has a duty to protect trans students, international students, affinity groups, all workers and students, and the very principle of academic freedom. Anything short of outright rejection  of this compact is complicity.”