The University of Virginia on Friday joined the chorus of refusals to endorse Trump’s compact, shortly after faculty and community members rallied on the campus to oppose the deal. Then on Saturday, Sian Leah Beilock, Dartmouth College’s president, posted a statement saying: “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.”
A compact “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 added.
Paul G. Mahoney, UVa’s interim president, said in a Friday 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 offer.
The University of Virginia and Dartmouth seem to have markedly different relationships with the Trump administration. Just months ago, UVa was caught in the crosshairs of the federal government over DEI concerns, which led to the resignation of its former president, James E. Ryan. Meanwhile, Dartmouth has not had any public conflicts with the Trump administration, even as every other Ivy League institution faced investigations for allegations that they countenanced antisemitism on campus.
Mahoney’s and Beilock’s mentions of merit echoed similar proclamations made by other university presidents who rejected the compact, which touts vague federal benefits in exchange for a commitment to various conservative principles. UVa had established a working group made up of various administrators to advise Mahoney on how to respond.
Three of the nine institutions invited have yet to respond, with feedback due to the administration by October 20. While the proposal was initially sent to a limited number of high-profile universities, Trump later said the compact was open to “any institution” willing to sign it.
The Wall Street Journal reported that on Friday the White House invited representatives from the four remaining compact recipients that had not by that time responded, in addition to Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Kansas, and Arizona State University, to discuss the proposal. In her message, Beilock confirmed that she was on the call.
Faculty, staff, students, and alumni at the nine original recipients protested on Friday as part of a “national day of action” against the compact. In Charlottesville, hundreds of attendees marched across UVa’s campus.
“The mood is palpable in terms of the feeling of support for rejecting [the compact],” said Walter F. Heinecke, an associate professor and immediate past president of UVa’s American Association of University Professors chapter. The AAUP chapter co-sponsored the rally, alongside a number of other advocacy groups. UVa’s Faculty Senate was not among them, but Faculty Senate chair Jeri K. Seidman read their resolution opposing the compact during the rally.
In a news release, UVa faculty members said the rally was aimed at “collectively rejecting claims of ideological homogeneity and hostility to a diversity of ideas levied by the Trump administration,” and ensuring that “the commitment to intellectual truth, rather than political fealty, serves as the guiding principle of academic excellence.”
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the first university to decline the deal, with Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California following suit days later.
“Any university that decides to negotiate and sign on is betraying their faculty, their staff, their students, their alums, and higher education in general, in terms of academic freedom,” said Heinecke.
Also on Friday, the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the Phi Beta Kappa Society issued a joint statement outlining the “enduring principles” that have served higher education and the nation “so well for generations,” many of which they argue the compact defies.
