Trump Administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

Summary

In October 2025, the Trump administration formally invited nine prominent universities—Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, Dartmouth College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, University of Arizona, and Vanderbilt University—to join a new agreement titled the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. The document, circulated on October 1 and later made public, laid out the administration’s terms for “preferential access” to federal grants, research contracts, and student-aid programs. It framed itself as an effort to “restore trust in American higher education” and to “ensure federal investments align with national values.” However, it also imposed a series of detailed conditions that many educators viewed as an unprecedented intrusion into university governance. Earlier in 2025, the administration had frozen roughly $175 million in federal research funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its transgender athlete policies, setting the stage for renewed confrontation between the White House and major research institutions.

The compact required participating universities to freeze undergraduate tuition for five years and to publicly report administrative and diversity-related expenditures. It capped international undergraduate enrollment at fifteen percent, with no more than five percent from any one country, and directed institutions to reinstate standardized testing in admissions. It prohibited the use of race, gender, religion, or political viewpoint in hiring and admissions and defined gender solely as biological sex recorded at birth. Universities were also instructed to eliminate or restructure programs or offices that “belittle or punish conservative ideas,” ensure “viewpoint neutrality” in grading and employment, and discipline those who disrupted classes or invited speakers. Additional provisions mandated “institutional neutrality” on political and social issues and certification that no federal funds would support “partisan activism or ideological advocacy.”

The University of Pennsylvania rejected the compact, emphasizing the institution’s commitment to academic freedom and autonomy. Dartmouth College announced that the proposal was inconsistent with its mission. The University of Southern California turned down the offer after faculty opposition and public criticism from California state officials. MIT, Brown, the University of Virginia, and the University of Arizona also rejected the compact, warning that participation would compromise institutional values and likely violate accreditation and civil rights standards. Only Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin delayed final decisions while consulting faculty governance bodies, though both expressed concern about the compact’s implications.

Faculty and student opposition added further pressure. At Dartmouth, more than half the faculty signed a petition urging the university to refuse the compact, while faculty senates at Arizona and Virginia passed resolutions declaring it incompatible with academic freedom. MIT and Brown students staged protests, arguing that the policy’s neutrality and gender provisions would silence marginalized voices. National groups of educators and student leaders condemned the initiative as coercive, and by late October nearly all targeted institutions had publicly declined to participate.

By late October 2025, seven of the nine universities had formally rejected the compact. Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin had not yet issued final decisions, though both were reviewing the proposal with faculty governance bodies. Universities that rejected the compact cited federal reporting requirements, restrictions on admissions and hiring, and mandated policies on campus speech and protests as factors in their decisions.