Ohio State University鈥檚 Senate Faculty Council has passed a resolution to join the Mutual Academic Defense Compact (MADC) in a 35 to 11 vote. However, a university spokesperson said the school can't legally join a common defense fund.
The compact urges the university's administration to join a coalition of schools in the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
The alliance has very little to do with sports, however. Created by , the alliance aims to 鈥減rovide immediate and strategic support to any member institution under direct political or legal infringement.鈥� This support would include legal counsel, experts and public affairs offices. The compact also creates a common defense fund to offer financial support if funding is threatened.
The vote passing in the Faculty Senate does not mean that Ohio State is part of the MADC yet. The final decision is up to university administrators.
OSU spokesman Chris Booker said in a statement that 鈥淭he university remains committed to shared governance and respects the role of its Faculty Council.鈥� But added, 鈥淚t is not legally permissible for the university to participate in a common defense fund.鈥�
The statement continued, 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to remember that Ohio State is a member of the American Council on Education, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the Association of American Universities, the Big Ten Academic Alliance and other organizations who advocate in support of the university mission.鈥�
The Rutgers resolution directly implicates the Trump administration's 鈥渨illingness to target individual institutions鈥� as the motivation behind it. Members of the university's Faculty Senate who have adopted the resolution have likened the alliance between schools to NATO.
The compact calls on all 18 Big Ten schools to join the alliance. Ohio State, the largest of the Big Ten schools, is the n