The 10-page compact the Trump administration is asking the University of Arizona and eight other universities to sign includes a strong penalty for any violations.
If a university agrees to the deal and then breaks any of its provisions, it would have to return all federal money received during the year of any violation. It would also have to return any private contributions for that year if asked to by the donor. Thirdly, the university would “lose access to the benefits of this agreement†for at least a year.
The U.S. Department of Justice would enforce these rules.
The compact sent Wednesday to the nine universities asks their presidents to agree to: ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions; freeze tuition for five years; cap international undergrad enrollment at 15%; apply the government’s 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.
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Universities that sign the deal, titled the “Compact for academic excellence in higher education,†are told they will receive benefits including priority access to federal funds, “substantial and meaningful federal grants,†and looser restraints on overhead costs.
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.â€
It describes federal benefits received by universities as “access to student loans, grant programs, and federal contracts; funding for research directly or indirectly; approval of student and other visas†and “preferential treatment under the tax code.â€
In the UA’s only public response to the proposal, university spokesperson Mitch Zak said Thursday: “The university first learned of the compact when we received it on Oct. 1. We are reviewing it carefully.â€
The other universities 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.
The compact’s provisions are divided into sections titled Equality in Admissions, Marketplace of Ideas & Civil Discourse, Nondiscrimination in Faculty and Administrative Hiring, Institutional Neutrality, Student Learning, Student Equality, Financial Responsibility, Foreign Entanglements, and Enforcement.
Here are the specific actions the UA is asked to commit to, as worded in the document:
Never consider sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations, or proxies for any of those factors, explicitly or implicitly, in any decision related to undergraduate or graduate student admissions or financial support.
Require all undergraduate applicants to take a widely-used standardized test such as SAT, ACT or CLT or program-specific measures of accomplishment in the case of music, art, and other specialized programs of study.
Publicly report anonymized data for admitted and rejected students, including GPA, standardized test score, or other program-specific measures of accomplishments, by race, national origin and sex.
Transform or abolish institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and spark violence against conservative ideas.
Conduct rigorous, empirical assessment of a broad spectrum of viewpoints among faculty, students and staff at all levels and share the results with the public. Seek such a broad spectrum of viewpoints not just in the university as a whole, but within every field, department, school, and teaching unit.
The University of Arizona.
Adopt a policy protecting academic freedom in classrooms, teaching, research and scholarship. Policies must recognize that academic freedom is not absolute.
Adopt policies that prevent discriminatory, threatening, harassing, or other behaviors that abridge the rights of other members of the university community.
Prohibit hecklers from causing disruptions, violence, intimidation or vandalism.
Bar demonstrators on campus from: delaying or disrupting class instruction or disrupting libraries or other traditional study locations; heckling or accosting individual students or groups of students; obstructing access to parts of campus based on students’ race, ethnicity, nationality or religion.
Commit to using lawful force if necessary to prevent the above violations by demonstrators, and to swift, serious sanctions for those who commit them.
Prohibit incitement to violence, including calls for murder or genocide or support for entities designated by the U.S. government as terrorist organizations.
Impartially and vigorously enforce all rights and restrictions it adopts with respect to free speech and expression.
Do not consider factors such as sex, ethnicity, race, national origin, disability, or religion in any decision related to the appointment, advancement, or reappointment of academic, administrative, or support staff at any level, except as provided by Title VII or described in federal employment discrimination statutes.
Bar all university employees, in their capacity as university representatives, from actions or speech relating to societal and political events except in cases in which external events have a direct impact upon the university.
(A subsequent sentence in the document, though not stated as a requirement for universities to fulfill, says students, faculty and staff are encouraged to comment on current events in their individual capacities, provided they do not purport to do so on behalf of the university or any of its subdivisions.)
Set policies requiring institutional neutrality and apply them with equal force to all academic units, including all colleges, faculties, schools, departments, programs, centers and institutes.
Commit to grade integrity and the use of defensible standards for whether students are achieving their goals, with each grade reflecting the quality, breadth and depth of the student’s achievement.
Acknowledge that a grade must not be inflated, or deflated, for any non-academic reason.
Use public accountability mechanisms to demonstrate commitment to grade integrity, such as publishing grade distribution dashboards with multiyear trendlines, public statements that explain student outcomes and any unusual upward trends, and comparisons with peer institutions.
Commit to defining and otherwise interpreting “male,†“female,†“woman,†and “man†according to reproductive function and biological processes. For women’s equality, require single-sex spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, and fair competition, such as in sports.
Maintain clear and consistent disciplinary standards that apply equally to all students, faculty and staff. These standards should promote fairness, due process and equal treatment. They must never favor or disfavor any person because of his or her membership in a racial, ethnic, national or religious group, or a group based on sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.
Freeze tuition rates charged to American students for the next five years.
Reduce administrative costs as far as reasonably possible.
Streamline or eliminate academic programs that fail to serve students.
Publicly post statistics about average earnings from graduates in each academic program.
Donald Trump is demanding $500 million from Harvard University in exchange for restoring $2.6 billion in frozen federal research funding. The dispute centers on allegations that Harvard failed to address antisemitism related to pro-Palestinian protests. While reports suggest a possible settlement, Harvard denies any deal is near and is pursuing the case in court.
Refund tuition to students who drop out during the first academic term of their undergraduate studies.
Accept full transfer credits from the Joint Service Transcript of military service members and veterans enrolling in undergraduate and graduate programs.
Allow no more than 15% of the undergraduate student population to be participants in the Student Visa Exchange Program, and no more than 5% of foreign students to be from any country.
Select foreign students on the basis of demonstrably extraordinary talent, rather than on the basis of financial advantage to the university.
Screen out foreign students who demonstrate hostility to the United States, its allies or its values.
Provide instruction in American civics to all foreign students.
Share all known information about foreign students, including discipline records, upon request, with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State.
Promptly and fully disclose all funding from any foreign institutions and individuals.
Do not allow foreign funding to in any way encourage or restrict the hiring of any persons or the teaching of any particular perspective or the admission of any foreign student or group of students.
Comply with applicable anti-money laundering laws, “Know Your Customer†laws and foreign gift and contract disclosure requirements.
Certify annually the university’s adherence to the compact’s principles.
Annually conduct, or hire an external party to conduct, an independent, empirically rigorous, and anonymous poll of faculty, students and staff, providing them the opportunity to evaluate the university’s performance against this compact.
Make the results of such surveys public and available on the university’s website.
(Note: The compact includes a stipulation that would not apply to the University of Arizona — that any university with an endowment exceeding $2 million per undergraduate student could not charge tuition for students pursuing hard science programs, with exceptions permitted for families of substantial means.)
