On Monday, the
University of Arizona declined an offer by the Trump administration to join a
compact that would potentially give preferential funding in exchange for a list
of changes to school policy, including no longer considering sex and ethnicity
in admissions and capping international enrollment. The letter was sent to nine
universities at the beginning of the month, and a total of seven schools have
rejected the offer so far.
The compact is
aimed at “the proactive improvement of higher education for the betterment of
the country,” according to a letter sent to the universities.
In a letter
addressed to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, University of Arizona
President Suresh Garimella said, “We seek no special treatment and believe in
our ability to compete for federally funded research strictly on merit.”
The University
of Arizona’s refusal comes after the University of Virginia rejected the offer
after a meeting at the White House on Friday. USC, Penn, Brown University,
Dartmouth College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have all also
rejected the proposal. Other schools – a mix of public and private universities
– have either said they are reviewing the compact or haven’t commented
publicly.
Before UVA
announced it was declining the offer, Trump officials on Friday convened
representatives from the school and several other universities – including
three additional schools that have now been asked to sign on to the compact, a
White House official said.
The White House
cast Friday’s conversation as “productive” and said it is now up to the schools
to decide. CNN has reached out to the remaining schools for comment.
The offers come as the Trump administration attempts different methods of crafting an unprecedented level of control over universities – among the centers of cultural debate in American life.
As universities contemplate the Trump administration’s offer, here is what we know about the choice ahead.
What the compact is
Letters were
sent to nine universities on October 1, asking them to agree to a series of
demands in return for expanded access to federal funding.
The schools
that received the initial letters, according to a White House official,
include: Vanderbilt University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College,
University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
University of Texas at Austin, University of Arizona, Brown University and
University of Virginia. Several of these schools have already had funding disputes with
the administration.
Since then,
another three schools – Arizona State University, University of Kansas, and
Washington University in St. Louis – were also asked to take part in the
agreement, a White House official said. Representatives from the three schools
were at Friday’s meeting at the White House, along with Vanderbilt University,
Dartmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of
Arizona, and UVA.
The universities
were asked to implement ideological polices, such as removing factors like sex
and ethnicity from admissions consideration, to foster “a vibrant marketplace
of ideas on campus” with “no single ideology dominant, both along political and
other relevant lines,” as well as to assess faculty and staff viewpoints, and
adopt definitions of gender “according to reproductive function and biological
processes,” according to a copy of the document obtained by CNN.
Schools that
sign on must also commit to reforming or shuttering “institutional units that
purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative
ideas,” the document says.
White House calls on universities to agree to demands for expanded access to federal funding
The letters
also request changes to other aspects of university culture, including a
commitment to “grade integrity,” a mandatory five-year freeze on tuition costs,
and a 15% required cap on international students, the document says.
If the schools
enter the agreement, they “would be given priority for grants when possible as
well as invitations for White House events and discussions with officials,” a
White House official said when the letters were sent.
To ensure
enforcement, the compact would require faculty, students and staff to
participate in an annual “anonymous poll” to see if universities are complying
with the agreement.
While the
letter said that “limited, targeted feedback” would be welcomed, the compact
was “largely in its final form” and hoped to have initial signatories “no later
than November 21, 2025.”
An initial copy
of the compact was drafted in December, according to a source familiar with the
matter, with edits and changes made collaboratively since the president
returned to the White House.
What is at stake for
the schools
Colleges and
universities have been a target for Trump’s second term, and this is one of
several attempts to get select universities to comply with their ideological
requirements.
Some schools,
including several of the nine schools that received the letters, have been
involved in funding battles since the new administration assumed power. While
some prominent schools have made deals or concessions, others maintain their concerns despite
pressure through government investigations or revoked grants.
Schools have even invested in federal lobbying, with a CNN analysis showing that Trump’s higher education targets have together spent 122% more in lobbying expenses in Q2 of this year compared with last year, with nine out of 14 institutions singled out by Trump doubling their spending since last year.
Signing onto
the compact would give the universities “a competitive advantage,” a White
House official previously said. The letter also said that it would “yield
multiple positive benefits for the school, including allowance for increased
overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants,
and other federal partnerships.”
How schools have
responded
Of the nine
universities that the officials said were sent the letter, seven have formally
responded by declining the offer – MIT, Penn, Brown University, USC, Dartmouth
College, the University of Virginia, and the University of Arizona.
University of
Arizona President Garimella said in response to McMahon’s letter, “We have much
common ground with the ideas your administration is advancing on changes that
would benefit American higher education and our nation at large.” But, “a
federal research funding system based on anything other than merit would weaken
the world’s preeminent engine for innovation, advancement of technology, and
solutions to many of our nation’s most profound challenges.”
Dartmouth
College declined the offer Saturday morning. Dartmouth President Sian Leah
Beilock maintained the school needs to set its own policies according to its
mission and values, she said in a statement.
“I do not
believe that a compact—with any administration—is the right approach to achieve
academic excellence, as it would compromise our academic freedom, our ability
to govern ourselves, and the principle that federal research funds should be
awarded to the best, most promising ideas,” Beilock said.
The University
of Virginia declined
the offer Friday, just hours after school officials
attended a meeting at the White House regarding the compact. While there are
many areas of agreement in the proposed compact, “we believe that the best path
toward real and durable progress lies in an open and collaborative
conversation,” university interim President Paul Mahoney said in a statement.
University of
Pennsylvania President J. Larry Jameson said he
informed the US Department of Education Thursday that the school declines the
proposed compact after receiving input from faculty, students, trustees and
others.
Penn “provided
focused feedback highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as
substantive concerns,” Jameson said in a statement to the community.
USC also
declined the offer Thursday, with the university’s Interim
President Beong-Soo Kim citing concerns with agreeing to the compact.
While the
school recognizes the administration is trying to address issues in higher
education, “tying research benefits to it (the compact) would, over time,
undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the
Compact seeks to promote,” Kim said in a letter to Department of Education
Secretary Linda McMahon that was shared online.
“Other
countries whose governments lack America’s commitment to freedom and democracy
have shown how academic excellence can suffer when shifting external priorities
tilt the research playing field away from free, meritocratic competition,” Kim
said. California Gov. Gavin Newsom previously threatened to withhold
state funding to universities in his state that agree to
the compact.
MIT announced its refusal on
October 10, when university President Sally Kornbluth said she acknowledged
“the vital importance of these matters,” but that the compact included
principles that ultimately “would restrict freedom of expression and our
independence as an institution.”
Brown
University President Christina H. Paxson made similar comments in her
Wednesday letter to the administration, saying they plan
to abide by a July 30 agreement they
previously reached with the government, but that this compact “by its nature
and by various provisions would restrict academic freedom and undermine the
autonomy of Brown’s governance.”
Vanderbilt
University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier rejected reports that the Nashville
university had been asked to accept or reject the compact. “We have been asked
to provide feedback and comments as part of an ongoing dialogue, and that is
our intention,” he said.
He added that
“academic freedom, free expression and independence are essential for universities
to make their vital and singular contributions to society.”
