University of Arizona declines to sign onto Trump administration ‘compact’

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By Helen Coster

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The University of Arizona on Monday cited academic freedom as it became the seventh elite institution to decline a Trump administration proposal offering nine schools preferential consideration for federal funding in exchange for agreeing to a set of policies.

Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin have yet to announce whether they will sign the proposal, for which the administration gave a Monday deadline.

Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, and Dartmouth College previously rejected the proposal.

Asked for comment about the University of Arizona’s statement declining to sign the agreement, and whether UT Austin or Vanderbilt had responded, a White House official told Reuters that none of the three had “signed the compact yet.”

The official added: “The administration is still listening to the feedback from the universities, so there is not a version ready for signature just yet.”

FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES ‘MUST BE PRESERVED’

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the White House has targeted what it deems liberal-leaning institutions and tried to withhold funding from colleges and universities over issues such as pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The administration has canceled federal contracts worth millions of dollars with numerous schools to pressure them to drastically change their admissions and hiring policies, among other issues. Courts have ordered many of the federal cuts be restored. The compact, sent to the nine universities early in the month, marked a new approach. 

“A number of the proposed federal recommendations deserve thoughtful consideration as our national higher education system could benefit from reforms that have been much too slow to develop,” University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella wrote in a statement addressed to the campus community.

“In fact, many of the proposed ideas are already in place at the U of A. At the same time, principles like academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence are foundational and must be preserved.

“As a result, the university has not agreed to the terms outlined in the draft proposal,” but instead has submitted to the U.S. Department of Education its existing Statement of Principles enumerating such university policies as merit-based hiring and prioritizing admission of qualified Arizona students and applicants from U.S. tribal nations, Garimella wrote.

In the White House’s 10-point memo titled “A Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” the administration asked the nine elite colleges to cap international undergraduate enrollment at 15%, ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions and define genders based on biology.

The memo called for “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” but did not include similar measures to protect liberal ideas.

It also proposed that the Classic Learning Test, embraced by some conservatives and already authorized for use by Florida’s public university system, be among the college entrance exams considered alongside the SAT and ACT.

Universities that pursue “models and values” beyond those outlined in the memo could “forgo federal benefits,” the memo reads, while institutions that comply could be rewarded.

A White House official has said schools other than the nine initially approached could sign on to the proposal.

(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Donna Bryson, Richard Chang and Kate Mayberry)