Trump Offers Funding Advantage to Institutions That Agree to Priorities

The Trump Administration issued a letter that initially invites nine colleges and universities to join its Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. Although few details are available, the letter appears to require colleges and universities that participate in the compact to give the federal government more of a say in areas that have traditionally been within the scope of an institution’s autonomy in exchange for preferential treatment in receiving federal grants.

The initial recipients of the letter include Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. It is not clear whether the opportunity to sign on to the compact will be offered to additional colleges and universities.

Although the letter inviting participation in the compact has not been made publicly available, it reportedly promises multiple benefits and substantial federal grants in exchange for meeting the compact’s provisions. The compact, however, states that institutions “are free to develop [other] models and values … if the institution elects to forego federal benefits.”

Institutions that choose to participate in the compact would be required to agree to a number of conditions related to pricing, admissions, and more. For example, signatories would have to agree to freeze tuition for a period of five years, refund tuition to students who drop out during their first term, publicly post information about program earnings, and not charge tuition for “hard science” majors if their endowments exceed $2 million per undergraduate student.

Institutions would also have to agree not to discriminate in admissions and hiring, use standardized tests in admissions, publicize data on admissions, and combat grade inflation. Additionally, signatories would be required to maintain ideological neutrality, foster diverse viewpoints, and modify governing structures as necessary to achieve those goals. Finally, institutions that participate would have to interpret sex in accordance with biological sex, limit international students to 15% of total enrollment, disclose all funding from foreign sources, and agree to monitoring of their compliance, with violations resulting in the loss of funding and the return of private donations upon request.

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Jody Feder