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The five universities still considering President Donald Trump’s higher-education deal were asked to join white House A call is scheduled for Friday to discuss the proposed deal, according to two people familiar with the matter. By late afternoon on Friday, one of the schools – the University of Virginia – Had already refused to sign the agreement.
The people who shared details of the call spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
The White House has faced multiple rejections after inviting nine universities to become “initial signers” of the compact, which asks colleges to make commitments consistent with Trump’s political priorities in exchange for favorable access to research funding. The White House asked university leaders to provide initial feedback on the compact by October 20, yet as the deadline approached, no one has signed the document.
Those that have not yet announced decisions include Dartmouth College, the University of Arizona, University of Texas and Vanderbilt University. He did not immediately respond to questions about Friday’s call.
The University of Virginia on Friday became the fifth university to refuse to participate in Trump’s agreement. The university’s interim president said in a letter to the Secretary of Education that awarding federal funding based on anything other than merit would undermine the integrity of research and further erode public confidence in higher education. Linda McMahon and White House officials.
Paul Mahoney wrote, “We look forward to working together to develop alternative, sustainable approaches to reforming higher education.”
Leaders of the University of Texas system previously said they were honored to be included, but other universities are still considering the deal and have not indicated which way they are leaning.
It is unclear what universities would gain by agreeing to the deal – or what they would lose if they did not. In a letter sent with the compact, Trump officials said it offers “many positive benefits,” including favorable access to federal funding. In return, the colleges were asked to adopt 10 pages of commitments consistent with Trump’s views.
The administration sought commitments to accept the government’s strict binary definition of “male” and “female”, to eliminate race and gender from admissions decisions, to promote conservative views on campus, and to ensure “institutional neutrality” on current events, among other provisions.
The compact states, “Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those outlined below if the institution elects to forgo federal benefits.”
The issue affected some students at Vanderbilt on Friday, with some worried that the university might sign the agreement even after it was condemned by student and faculty groups.
“My main concern is just that this is kind of the first hook,” said Marjolein Muis, a postdoctoral researcher of language development in the brain, in an interview at the Nashville campus. “And once universities agree to this, the terms will change, and more and more universities will be asked, and maybe the government will start to intervene more in the types of research being done here.”
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the first institution to reject the deal last week, saying it would limit free speech and campus freedoms. Similar concerns were cited in rejections from Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California.
The compact – which aims to reshape higher education through negotiation rather than legislation – has sparked a wave of protest in academia and beyond. Students have protested, faculty have condemned it, and Democrats at all levels have been outraged. Governor Gavin Newsom in California and Democrats in Virginia have threatened to cut state funding to any university that signs on.
In a joint statement Friday, more than 30 higher education organizations urged the administration to withdraw the agreement. The coalition, led by the American Council on Education, an association of research universities, said the agreement would give the government unprecedented control over colleges’ academics and hinder free speech.
“The compact is a step in the wrong direction,” the statement said.
Many of the terms match recent deals made by the White House with Brown and Columbia universities to drop investigations into alleged discrimination and restore research funding. But while those agreements included terms affirming the academic freedom of campuses, the compact offers no such protections – one of the obstacles cited in Brown’s rejection.
Trump has prioritized securing obedience from powerful and prestigious universities, which he describes as bastions of liberalism.
His top prize has been Harvard, the first university to openly reject government-wide demands. The White House cut billions of dollars in research funding at Harvard, canceled its federal contracts, and attempted to prevent the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students.
A federal judge in Boston overturned the funding cuts last month, calling them an unconstitutional overreach.
Several other prestigious universities have also had their funding cut amid investigations into alleged anti-Semitism.
White House officials described the proposal as a proactive approach to shaping policy on US campuses, even as the administration continues its enforcement efforts.
Trump said Sunday that the signing colleges will help usher in a “golden age of academic excellence in higher education.” Speaking on his Truth Social platform, he said it would reform universities that “are now corrupting our youth and society with WOKE, SOCIALIST and ANTI-AMERICAN ideology.”
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