Most of the nine universities who were required to meet a list of commitments that align with the Trump administration’s political priorities in exchange for preferential access to federal funds have indicated they are not planning on signing by Monday’s deadline, NPR reported.
After MIT was the first university to reject the offer earlier this month, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that all colleges could sign on to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, not only the nine that were sent the letter.
But afterwards, Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California all sent out statements “respectfully” declining the offer.
The compact would require schools, among other examples, to bar transgender people from using bathrooms or playing in sports that align with their gender identities, freeze tuition for five years, limit international student enrollment, and require standardized tests for admissions.
On Friday, the White House held a virtual meeting with universities that had not yet rejected the proposal, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote on X after the event that attendees had a “positive and wide-ranging conversation about the compact.”
However, two more schools, the University of Virginia and Dartmouth College, announced they also would not be signing on to the agreement following the meeting.
Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock said in a letter over the weekend that she did not think “a compact — with any administration — is the right approach to achieve academic excellence.”
UVA said it wanted “no special treatment” when it comes to federal funding.
Since Trump took office, the administration has canceled billions of dollars in federal research grants at many universities over numerous issues — including what it cited were transgender policies, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and antisemitism on campus.
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