WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is calling for nine major universities to commit to President Donald Trump’s political priorities in exchange for more favorable access to federal money.
The university was asked to sign “Compact for academic excellence in higher education.” The White House Vision For American campus. It asks the school to accept government priorities EnrollmentAmong other topics, including women’s sports, freedom of speech, student discipline, and university affordability.
Sign-on will provide the university with priority access to some federal grants, but government funding will not be limited to those schools alone, according to White House officials who spoke to the condition of anonymity, which is not permitted to publicly discuss the plan. Agreeing universities also have priority access to White House events and discussions with officials.
The compact, acquired Thursday by the Associated Press, asks the university to accept the government’s gender definition and apply it to campus bathrooms, locker rooms and women’s sports teams. It asks universities to stop reviewing race, gender and other broad student demographics in the admissions process and to require undergraduate applicants to take SAT or action.
The 10-page proposal agreement was sent to some of the most selective public and private universities on Wednesday: Vanderbilt, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth University, University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas, University of Arizona, Brown University, and University of Virginia. It was not clear how these schools were chosen, why, and whether similar offers would appear at other universities.
The Texas System leaders were “honored” to have the Austin Campus been selected as part of the compact and as a “potential fundraising benefit,” according to a statement from board chair Kevin Eltife. “Today, we welcome the new opportunities presented to us and look forward to working with the Trump administration on that,” Eltife said.
Representatives from other universities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The administration used federal fund management at several other universities as a leverage, cutting research funding at schools Harvard Columbia has called for school governance and policy changes.
Under the compact, international registration must close with 15% of undergraduate students at the university. Many elite schools are currently likely to not exceed 5% from one country.
Schools signed on must limit tuition fees for US students for five years, and on the wealthiest campuses, students pursuing “hard science programs” will not charge any tuition fees.
With free speech, schools must be committed to promoting a broader view on campus. This includes, according to the Compact, “transformation or abolishment of institutional units that intentionally punish, neglect, and even cause fire for violence against conservative ideas.”
Each school must commission an annual poll of students and teachers to assess campus compliance with the agreement. The terms will be enforced by the Department of Justice, and violators will lose access to the compact’s benefits for more than a year. Following the violation, he will be penalized in the second year.
“Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than the following models,” said the compact, “if the agency chooses to withhold federal benefits.”
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