Nine universities were initially offered the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which would require them to make a wide-ranging series of commitments to uphold admissions and hiring practices, foster “viewpoint diversity,” and cap international enrollment, among other items.
By agreeing to the compact, the universities would secure “multiple positive benefits,” including higher overhead payments, “substantial and meaningful federal grants,” and other partnerships, according to a letter from a White House official.
The letter set an October 20 deadline for “limited, targeted feedback” on the compact, leaving university leaders scrambling to evaluate its terms. The Chronicle is documenting official university responses to the document, along with faculty statements, as they are made public.
We will continue to update this reporting. If you have a tip or feedback, please contact us at newseditor@chronicle.com. Here’s what we know now:
Brown U.
What administrators have said: In a message to the university, Brown’s president, Christina H. Paxson, announced that Brown will be “respectfully declining” the compact. “I am concerned that the Compact by its nature and by various provisions would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance, critically compromising our ability to fulfill our mission,” Paxson said. “The Brown community will remain focused on meeting the established commitments under the July 30 agreement, while safeguarding our mission and foundational academic values.” | Source: Brown University
What faculty have said: A professor at Brown, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions, said that at multiple faculty meetings, professors “have been expressing significant concern” about the compact. While there are “a lot of different voices,” the professor said, the “overwhelming message” is that faculty are urging leadership to reject it based on “the way it would compromise academic freedom” and the “role of higher education and its independence from politicization.” | Source: Chronicle reporting
Dartmouth College
What administrators have said: “I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact — whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House — is the right way to focus America’s leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission,” Sian Leah Beilock, president of Dartmouth, said in a statement declining the compact. “Our universities have a responsibility to set our own academic and institutional policies, guided by our mission and values, our commitment to free expression, and our obligations under the law. “| Source: Dartmouth University
What faculty have said: Hundreds of Dartmouth faculty members have signed a petition opposing the compact, asking university leaders to speak out against “this unprecedented attack on higher education.” | Source: “Concerned Dartmouth faculty”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
What administrators have said: In a statement to the secretary of education, Linda McMahon, MIT’s president, Sally Kornbluth, said the university “cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education,” listing a clear set of values outlined in the compact that MIT has already worked to institute, including rewarding merit and capping international enrollment. “The premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone,” Kornbluth said. | Source: “Regarding the Compact”
What faculty have said: “We urge MIT leadership and the MIT Corporation to reject the compact wholesale,” members of the MIT chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote in a statement. “Federal funding for higher-education research should be based not on political litmus tests, but on academic, scientific, and intellectual criteria that serve the nation and the world.” The MIT Graduate Student Union, along with 28 other campus organizations, have also signed a letter urging the university to reject the compact. | Source: MIT AAUP, MIT Graduate Student Union
U. of Arizona
What administrators have said: President Suresh Garimella said in a statement to the community that while the “university has not agreed to the terms outlines in the draft proposal,” the university has “submitted a Statement of Principles to the Department of Education.” The response, Garimella said, “is our contribution toward a national conversation about the future relationship between universities and the federal government.”
| Source: UA
What faculty have said: The university’s Faculty Senate passed a resolution calling on the institution to reject the compact. “This compact contains provisions which endanger the independence, excellence, and integrity of the University of Arizona and infringe on the constitutional rights of members of the University of Arizona community,” the resolution reads. | Source: Arizona Daily Star
U. of Pennsylvania
What administrators have said: In a letter addressed to the Penn community, J. Larry Jameson, its president, said the university would “respectfully” decline the Trump administration’s offer to join the compact. Jameson said he provided “focused feedback” to the department that highlights “areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns” the university continues to have. “The longstanding partnership between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress,” Jameson said.| Source: U. of Pennsylvania
What faculty have said: More than 1,000 faculty, staff, and students have signed a petition opposing the compact distributed by the Penn chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “Penn’s Latin motto, Leges Sine Moribus Vanae, translates to ‘Laws Without Morals are Useless,’” the petition states. “It is time to put that principle into practice.” | Source: AAUP Penn
U. of Southern California
What administrators have said: In a letter addressed to the secretary of education, Linda McMahon, USC’s interim president, Beong-Soo Kim, said, “USC respectfully declines to participate in the proposed compact,” rejecting the Trump administration’s proposal. A chief concern Kim citied was how the proposed research benefits “would, over time, undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the compact seeks to promote.” | Source: USC
What faculty have said: At a virtual meeting, members of the USC Academic Senate decried the compact as “egregiously invalid,” “probably unconstitutional,” “antithetical to principles of academic freedom,” and “a Trojan horse.” | Source: Los Angeles Times
U. of Texas at Austin
What administrators have said: “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,’” Kevin P. Eltife, chair of the University of Texas system’s Board of Regents, said in a statement. “We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately.” | Source: The Chronicle
What faculty have said: Executive committee members of the UT Austin AAUP chapter sent a letter to UT administrators expressing “serious concern” about the compact, citing that it “eliminates the longstanding practice of merit-based evaluation for federally funded research grants.” Members urged university leadership to “lead the public Ivies: reject the Compact, defend the independence of our institution, and uphold faculty’s and students’ academic freedom.” David DeMatthews, a professor of education, told the student newspaper: “I just don’t see a 10-point memo that treats human thought and perspective and viewpoints as a binary as being very helpful.” | Source: The Daily Texan, UT Austin AAUP
U. of Virginia
What administrators have said: Paul G. Mahoney, UVa’s interim president, said in a community message that “a contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education.” UVa is the first public university to respond to the Trump administration’s compact offer. | Source: UVA
What faculty have said: Faculty members of the College of Arts and Sciences held a virtual emergency meeting to approve a resolution urging campus leaders to reject the compact. According to a faculty member present at the meeting, 97 percent of attendees supported the measure. Days earlier, the UVa Faculty Senate passed a resolution calling on leaders to “reject this compact outright as well as any similar proposal comprising the mission, values, and independence of the University.” UVa’s AAUP chapter also issued a statement “vehemently opposing” the compact.
“It really is something that, at least in my department, is galvanizing people who don’t normally speak out on political issues,” said Susan Fraiman, a professor in the English department. “We really see this as just a threat to our livelihood, not just in financial terms, but in intellectual terms.” | Source: UVa Faculty Senate, UVa AAUP
Vanderbilt U.
What administrators have said: Chancellor Daniel Diermeier wrote to the community that “we have not been asked to accept or reject the draft compact” but instead provide feedback as “part of an ongoing dialogue, and that is our intention.” Diermeier added that Vanderbilt has always operated under the principle that “research awards should be made based on merit alone” and that “this merit-based approach has enabled the scholarly and scientific excellence that has driven American health, security and prosperity for decades. It must be preserved,” he said.
| Source: Vanderbilt University
What faculty have said: In a statement, the Vanderbilt chapter of the American Association of University Professors urged leadership to “reject this Trump loyalty oath and any other that seeks to commandeer Vanderbilt’s institutional autonomy.” “We cannot sincerely ask our students to ‘dare to grow’ in the environment of fear and mistrust that this compact would produce in our community,” it said. Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United created its own petition opposing what the document calls a “fascist takeover of higher education.” More than 800 people have signed. The Vanderbilt Faculty Senate also passed a resolution opposing the offer, calling on university leaders to do the same.
| Sources: Vanderbilt AAUP, Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United, Vanderbilt Faculty Senate
