UVA rejects Trump administration compact for preferential funding

After mulling its response for a few weeks, UVA in mid-October became the fifth school to decline a Trump administration compact promising preferential treatment in return for committing to a series of Trump administration policies.

Department of Education officials sent a letter dated Oct. 1 to nine schools inviting feedback on, or agreement to, what it called a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” The schools—UVA, Dartmouth, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Brown, the University of Southern California, the University of Arizona, the University of Texas and Vanderbilt University—had until Oct. 20 to send feedback on the proposed agreement and until Nov. 21 to sign on.

Universities that signed the agreement would see “multiple positive benefits for the school, including allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships,” the letter read.

The proposed agreement itself takes a different tone. The introduction to the 10-page document notes the “extraordinary relationship” universities have with the federal government, including access to student loans, grant programs, and federal contracts; research funding; approval of student and other visas; and preferential treatment under the tax code. It goes on to say: “Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits.”

The agreement requirements include removing sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity and religious associations from consideration in admission, financial aid or hiring; a standardized test requirement for admission; fostering a “vibrant marketplace of ideas” including changing or getting rid of units that “punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas”; freezing tuition to American students for five years; limiting the number of international students as well as the percentage from each country; and an annual certification that the school meets all the agreement’s criteria.

When the offer to sign the compact was made, Mahoney and Board of Visitors Rector Rachel Sheridan put together a working group to consider it and offered a portal for students, faculty and staff to provide comments. On Oct. 3, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution saying the proposal contained provisions “antithetical to the mission and traditions of the University” as well as provisions that “endanger the independence and integrity of the University.”

In a reply to the Trump administration on Oct. 17, interim President Paul Mahoney wrote that UVA agrees with many of the principles outlined in the proposal, including a “fair and unbiased admissions process, an affordable and academically rigorous education, a thriving marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and equal treatment of students, faculty and staff in all aspects of university operations.” He added, however:

“We seek no special treatment in exchange for our pursuit of those foundational goals. The integrity of science and other academic work requires merit-based assessment of research and scholarship. A contractual agreement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education.”

Mahoney closed by saying that “open and collaborative conversation” is the best path forward for addressing the “significant challenges” faced by higher education.

Less than a week after Mahoney sent his reply, UVA and the Department of Justice said they had reached an agreement to pause the DOJ’s investigation that preceded the summer resignation of President Jim Ryan (Law class of ’92).

Other universities initially invited to the agreement have also faced federal pressure. Brown University reached a settlement with the federal government in July to restore $510 million in research funding and to resolve inquiries into its use of race in admissions and its treatment of Jewish students. Penn agreed to modify the records of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to restore $175 million in frozen federal funds.

MIT was the first school to decline the compact, followed by Brown, Penn, and the University of Southern California. After UVA’s announcement, Dartmouth and Arizona followed suit. In mid-October, after none of the original nine schools had accepted, the offer was extended to all U.S. colleges and universities.