The Trump administration has called on nine universities to sign a compact that commits schools to adopt Trump’s higher education agenda.
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is encouraging leaders at nine universities to sign a compact that commits schools to adopt President Donald Trump’s higher education policy agenda in exchange for prioritized access to federal funds.
Administrators from nine prominent universities, both private and public institutions, received an October 1 letter from the White House, urging them to sign a vast 10-page “Compact for the Excellence of Higher Education.”
The effort illustrates the escalation of Trump’s fight to rebuild universities and universities that Republicans have long criticised as overwhelmingly liberal. Critics, including one of the nation’s leading lobbying groups for university presidents, denounced the compact as the government challenged academia.
The 10-point contract obtained by USA Today will commit participating schools to 15% of student organizations to reduce admission to international faculty, and will freeze tuition fees over the next five years. It also requires applicants to take SAT, ACT or other similar admissions tests.
Universities need to adopt policies that protect “academic freedom” from all perspectives in the classroom and eliminate “institutional units” that “deliberately punish, neglect, and even set fire to violence against conservative ideas.”
The compact also requires schools to eliminate race, gender and ethnicity as factors in their enrolment. Adopts “institutional neutrality” that limits professors and other employees to express political views in arguments that affect schools. Sports and bathroom facilities use strict definitions of men and women. They also need “course conditions” that disrupt campus or prohibit demonstrations targeting other students.
The compact, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, was sent to Vanderbilt University leaders to Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth University, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona and the University of Virginia.
University agreeing to the compact will receive a competitive advantage over federal education funding, White House officials told USA Today.
Officials said federal funding is not limited to schools signed by the compact.
Higher ED lobby and Newsom respond
Ted Mitchell, chairman of the US Council of Education, represents around 1,600 presidents of the university and university, criticising the compact as a humiliation for academic independence. “Efforts to reward or punish agencies based on compliance with the views of government officials should plague all Americans,” Mitchell said in a statement.
“Defining what constitutes an active, free intellectual environment is not the role of the federal government, and its impact on freedom of speech and academic freedom is cold,” said Mitchell, who served as the Obama administration’s secretary of education.
Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned in an X post that the University of California would “beat Donald Trump’s will and sign this crazy “compact” and lose billions of state funds.” The University of Southern California is the only California school to receive a letter from the White House.
“California will not bankroll schools that approve academic freedom,” Newsom said.
The compact comes after Trump previously threatened to withhold federal funding for lawsuits such as Israeli war in Gaza, transgender policies, climate initiatives, diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
According to The New York Times, the letter accompanying the compact was signed by Education Sec. Linda McMahon; Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. and May Mailman, senior White House adviser to the Special Project, which drives the Trump administration’s agenda on higher education.
Playing a facilitating role was Mark Rowan, CEO of private equity Apollo Global Management, who brought together conservative scholars, scholars and policymakers in 2024 to create a document on the overhaul of higher education. According to sources familiar with the effort, it later evolved into a White House university compact.
In 2023, Rowan was one of the University of Pennsylvania’s major benefactors and led a pressure campaign against then-President Elizabeth McGill before resigning amidst anti-Semitism allegations on campus.
The Trump administration has launched investigations of several well-known universities over Palestinian protests over Israeli attacks on Gaza.
The government reached the settlement to settle probes at Columbia and Brown University, which accepted requests from the Trump administration. Columbia agreed to pay the government more than $220 million, while Brown said it would pay $50 million to support local workforce development.
Trump said this week that his administration is close to dealing with Harvard, which includes a $500 million payment by the university.
Contribution: Reuters
Reach Joey Garrison with X @joeygarrison.
