The Trump administration is yet again meddling in higher education, this time by issuing a 10-page “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education” to an assortment of nine of the nation’s top universities. The universities, which received letters including the compact on Oct. 1, have been asked to give feedback to the Trump administration by Oct. 20.
The nine universities that received letters are the University of Arizona, the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and Vanderbilt University.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has not received a letter at this time, nor has any other institution in North Carolina.
The terms of the 10-page compact include:
- Banning consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions processes
- Freezing tuition for a five-year period
- Limiting international undergraduate enrollment to 15 percent of the student body
- Committing to institutional neutrality
- Requiring applicants to take standardized tests, such as the SAT or ACT
- Clamping down on grade inflation
- Ensuring a “vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus”
- Restricting employees from expressing political views on behalf of the institution
- Shutting down departments that “punish, belittle” or “spark violence against conservative ideas”
- Anonymously polling students and employees on compact compliance and publishing the results
The Trump administration has offered priority access for federal funding to institutions that sign on to the compact and agree to meet these requirements, among others.
National higher education organizations have spoken out against the compact, including the American Council on Education (ACE), saying:
“… this is yet another instance of the administration weaponizing federal funding to achieve its ideological and political aims. They made clear that the goal of this effort is to pressure higher education leaders in ways that are wholly inappropriate and threatening to core concepts of academic freedom.”
And the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), saying:
“Regrettably, the administration has continued to seek ways to impose its own ideologically driven vision for higher education through unilateral executive action and the coercive use of public funding. … The compact is, in effect, an ultimatum: sign and receive ‘multiple positive benefits,’ including ‘substantial and meaningful federal grants,’ or retain the freedom to ‘develop models and values other than those’ of the administration, and ‘forgo federal funding.’”
Of the institutions that received letters, only one – the University of Texas – provided an immediate positive response, with Kevin P. Eltife, the chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, saying:
“The University of Texas system is honored that our flagship — the University of Texas at Austin — has been named as one of only nine institutions in the U.S. selected by the Trump administration for potential funding advantages under its new Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately.”
Now, over a week has passed since the nine universities received their letters. While universities have released little in the form of official responses, campuses and leaders are beginning to organize and speak out against the compact.
At the University of Pennsylvania, a petition titled “Just Say No to Trump’s Compact for Academic Extortion,” has over 500 Penn faculty signatories and many more from the broader Penn community.
During a 500-person University of Southern California faculty senate meeting on Monday, faculty members strongly denounced the compact, with the LA Times reporting:
“In forceful speeches, University of Southern California department chairs, professors, researchers and others who attended the virtual meeting called the compact ‘egregiously invalid,’ ‘probably unconstitutional,’ ‘antithetical to principles of academic freedom’ and ‘a Trojan horse.’”
Governor Gavin Newsom also threatened to cut off state funding to any California institution that signs on with the Trump administration’s demands.
The University of Arizona faculty senate overwhelmingly voted to oppose the compact during an Oct. 6 meeting, with 40 members voting to oppose the compact, 8 voting in favor and 1 abstaining.
At the University of Virginia, 97 percent of faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences voted to reject the compact. Similar to Governor Newsom’s response in California, Virginia State Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell sent a letter to UVA’s president and rector threatening state funding if the university met the Trump administration’s demands.
A petition titled “Vanderbilt — Don’t Sign Trump’s Fascist Compact” is being circulated among the Vanderbilt University community and currently has 800 signatures. The Vanderbilt chapter of the AAUP also released a statement opposing the compact.
Dartmouth College President Sian Leah Beilock released a statement after receiving the Trump administration letter, saying:
“I am deeply committed to Dartmouth’s academic mission and values and will always defend our fierce independence. You have often heard me say that higher education is not perfect and that we can do better. At the same time, we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves.”
And The Dartmouth student newspaper reported:
“In an open Dartmouth Student Government meeting on Oct. 5, senior vice president for community and campus life Jennifer Rosales said ‘some parts’ of the Trump administration’s ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’ may ‘go against some’ of the College’s current ‘policies and missions,’ such as those around academic freedom.”
Meanwhile, leaders at Brown University have remained silent since receiving their letter. Notably, in July, Brown paid a $50 million fine to restore federal funding that the Trump administration had withheld from the school.
MIT also appears to be weighing its response quietly.
At the Coalition for Carolina, we will continue to monitor the situation surrounding the Trump administration compact as these nine universities respond and additional institutions potentially receive letters.
As many in higher ed have already asserted, the stipulations of this compact pose a grave threat to institutional self-governance. Some requirements trample on free thought and free speech, while others run afoul of how certain universities effectively – and legally – operate. For instance, some universities offset costs for domestic students by having a substantial-sized international population that pays the full price of tuition. In the case of UNC-Chapel Hill (which, again, has not received the compact), freezing tuition is in the purview of the UNC Board of Governors rather than individual campuses.
Perhaps UC-Berkeley’s law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky described the compact most succinctly: “This is extortion, plain and simple.”