WASHINGTON — The five universities that are still weighing President Donald Trump’s higher-education compact were asked to join a White House call Friday to discuss the proposed deal.
The White House call followed a flurry of rejections from four of the nine universities invited to be “initial signatories” of the agreement.
By late Friday afternoon, however, one of the five remaining universities — the University of Virginia — announced it, too, is rejecting the compact.
In another development, the Wall Street Journal reported that three universities not originally invited to join the compact were added to the phone call Friday: Arizona State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Kansas.
The White House has asked leaders of the first round of nine universities to provide initial feedback by Oct. 20, yet as the deadline approaches, none have signed on to the document.
Among those nine, those that have not yet announced a decision are the University of Arizona, Dartmouth College, the University of Texas, and Vanderbilt University. Dartmouth's president has indicated she cannot support the compact but hasn't formally rejected it. None of those schools immediately respond to questions about Friday’s call.
University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella is meeting late today — in a session closed to the public — with the Arizona Board of Regents to discuss the compact.
The University of Virginia on Friday became the fifth university to decline to participate in Trump's compact. Providing federal money based on anything but merit would undermine the integrity of research and further erode public confidence in higher education, the university's interim president said in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and White House officials.
“We look forward to working together to develop alternative, lasting approaches to improving higher education,” Paul Mahoney wrote.
Leaders of the University of Texas system previously said they were honored to be included, but other universities have not indicated how they’re leaning.
It’s unclear exactly what universities have to gain by agreeing to the deal — or what they stand to lose if they don’t. In a letter sent alongside the compact, Trump officials said it provided “multiple positive benefits” including favorable access to federal funding. In exchange, colleges were asked to adopt 10 pages of commitments aligned with Trump’s political priorities.
It asked for commitments to eliminate race and sex from admissions decisions, to accept the government’s strict binary definition of “man” and “woman,” to promote conservative views on campus and to ensure “institutional neutrality” on current events, among other provisions.
“Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits,” the compact said.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the first to decline the deal last week, saying it would limit free speech and campus independence. 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 stirred a wave of pushback from academia and beyond. It has been protested by students, condemned by faculty and drawn the ire of Democrats at all levels. Gov. 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 compact. Led by the American Council on Education, the coalition 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 align with recent deals the White House struck with Brown and Columbia universities to close investigations into alleged discrimination and to restore research funding. But while those agreements included terms affirming the campuses’ academic freedom, the compact offers no such protection — one of the roadblocks cited in Brown’s rejection.
Trump has made it a priority to win obedience from powerful and prestigious universities that he describes as bastions of liberalism.
His top prize has been Harvard, the first university to openly defy a set of wide-ranging demands from the government. The White House went on to slash billions of dollars in research funding at Harvard, cancel its federal contracts and attempt to block the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students.
A federal judge in Boston reversed the funding cuts last month, calling it an unconstitutional overreach.
Several other prestigious universities have also had their funding cut amid investigations into alleged antisemitism.
White House officials described the offer as a proactive approach to shape policy at U.S. campuses even as the administration continues its enforcement efforts.
Trump on Sunday said colleges that sign on will help bring about “the 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.”
