How universities are responding to the Trump administration’s ‘compact’ for funding

The Trump administration has offered major universities preferential access to federal funds in exchange for agreeing to a list of administration demands.

The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” lays out demands that include no consideration of race, sex or other factors in enrollment, financial aid or hiring decisions.

The 10-page agreement would also require the universities to bar transgender people from using restrooms or playing in sports that align with their gender identities and capping international undergraduate student enrollment.

And it includes an “institutional neutrality” that would limit what faculty members could say about political or other issues.

“This requires policies that all university employees, in their capacity as university representatives, will abstain from actions or speech relating to societal and political events except in cases in which external events have a direct impact upon the university,” the 10-page memo, obtained by NBC News in early October, reads.

The initial list included nine top-tier universities: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona and the University of Virginia.

Four of those have said publicly they have rejected the offer.

The Trump administration also approached three others: Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Kansas and Arizona State University, a White House official said Friday. The new names were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

A White House official had previously said “we would not turn away universities.”

Here’s how the universities have responded:

MIT

MIT said Oct. 10 that it would reject it, becoming the first of the nine schools to do so.

MIT disagreed with a number of aspects of the administration’s proposal, arguing that it would restrict the university’s freedom of expression and independence, Sally Kornbluth, president of the Cambridge-based school, wrote in a letter Friday to the Education Department.

“In our view, America’s leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence,” Kornbluth wrote.

“In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education,” she said.

Brown University

University President Christina H. Paxson said in a letter to Trump administration officials dated Wednesday that the university will reject the proposal.

Paxson said Brown already commits to equal opportunity in admissions and hiring and to a campus environment free of harassment and discrimination.

Brown signed an earlier agreement with the Trump administration in July, but Paxson said it would not agree to the new proposal.

“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 wrote in the letter.

She also said the issues in the proposal should not influence research funding.

“A fundamental part of academic excellence is awarding research funding on the merits of the research being proposed. The cover letter describing the Compact contemplates funding research on criteria other than the soundness and likely impact of research, which would ultimately damage the health and prosperity of Americans,” she wrote.

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania, known as Penn, said Thursday that it is rejecting the proposal.

“At Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability. The long-standing 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,” University President J. Larry Jameson announced.

University of Southern California

USC said Thursday that it is declining the offer.

“Although USC has declined to join the proposed Compact, we look forward to contributing our perspectives, insights, and Trojan values to an important national conversation about the future of higher education,” interim President Beong-Soo Kim said.

USC said in its response that it takes issues of nondiscrimination in admissions and employment seriously and that it has launched initiatives to promote civil discourse across the spectrum of ideological views.

“We are concerned that even though the Compact would be voluntary, tying research benefits to it would, over time, undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the Compact seeks to promote,” Kim wrote.

“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,” he said in the letter.