The White House is asking the University of Arizona for “limited, targeted feedback” by Oct. 20 on its proposed deal for universities to agree to ideological, political and financial demands in return for federal funding advantages, but says the compact is “largely in its final form.”
“Schools that show clear alignment and a strong readiness to champion this effort will be invited to the White House to finalize language and to be initial signatories,” says the letter sent Oct. 1 to UA President Suresh Garimella and eight other universities.
The White House aims to have a signed agreement on its “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” no later than Nov. 21, the letter says.
The UA released the letter Monday to the Arizona Daily Star, which had made a public records request and pointed out that the University of Virginia, one of the other schools to receive the White House letter, had released it to the public last week. The Star has also put in a request under public records law for any response the UA sends about the letter.
UA spokesperson Mitch Zak and the UA Office of Public Records did not say if Garimella has sent any initial response or acknowledgement to the White House. So far, the UA’s only public response on the letter and the compact is that they are “reviewing it carefully.”
Tucson City Council is asked to oppose UA’s involvement
In another development Monday, Tucson Democratic City Council members Rocque Perez and Lane Santa Cruz are asking Mayor Regina Romero and the City Council to approve a resolution urging the UA and the Arizona Board of Regents not to agree to the compact, which they call “an unacceptable act of federal interference that undermines local control, academic freedom, and opportunity for our residents.” The regents oversee the university.
Old Main on the University of Arizona at night.
The proposed city resolution states “confidence in the University of Arizona’s leadership to reject the Compact and to continue its responsibility as a land-grant institution that champions access, independence, and opportunity for all.”
It also says the deal would harm Tucson families, “reducing their opportunity for economic mobility, weakening the workforce pipeline critical to Arizona’s competitiveness and undermining the educational access and equity that residents rightly expect from their public institutions.”
What the UA would have to do
The 10-page compact would require the UA to ban the use of race of sex in hiring and admissions; freeze tuition for five years; cap international undergrad enrollment at 15%; apply a strict definition of gender to campus bathrooms, locker rooms and women’s sports teams; transform or abolish departments that “belittle” conservative ideas; bar employees from speaking out as university representatives on external societal and political events; and other requirements.
Any university that agrees to the deal and breaks any of its provisions, as determined and enforced by the U.S. Justice Department, would have to return all federal money received during the year of any violation; return any private contributions for that year if asked to by the donor; and lose access to “the benefits of this agreement” for at least a year.
The other universities the White House sent the letter and compact to are Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia.
Signing the compact “will yield 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 says.
The document also includes a phrase that suggests universities that don’t sign will lose federal benefits: “Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those” in the compact, “if the institution elects to forego federal benefits.”
The letter says the Trump administration is committed to a “forward-looking vision of higher education that serves our nation by helping the next generation grow into resilient, curious, and moral leaders, inspired by American and Western values.”
It was signed by U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Director of Domestic Policy Council Vincent Haley and May Mailman, the White House’s senior advisor for special projects.
