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

By Helen Coster

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The University of Arizona on Monday cited academic freedom as it became the seventh elite college to decline to sign onto a Trump administration proposal that offered nine of them 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.

The proposal has been rejected by Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, and Dartmouth College.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his White House has targeted what it deems liberal-leaning institutions in various fields 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,” wrote University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella in a statement.

“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.”

Garimella said the university submitted to the Department of Education its existing Statement of Principles, which outlines such university policies as merit-based hiring and prioritizing admission of qualified Arizona students and applicants from U.S. tribal nations.

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.

Schools 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 and Richard Chang)