The Trump administration is asking nine colleges and universities to adhere to a set of policies to gain priority access to federal funding.
The following article is a part of University Business’ ongoing coverage of President Donald J. Trump’s impact on higher education during his second term in office. Click here for the latest updates.
The memo, first acquired by The Wall Street Journal, requests each college to align its operations with the current priorities of the Department of Education under President Donald Trump. Some of the demands include a return to standardized testing, limits to international students and a five-year tuition freeze.
The colleges included in the memo included the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia.
Institutions that agree to the 10 principles will be offered preferential access to federal grants and invites to White House-sponsored events, May Mailman, senior advisor for special projects at the White House, told the Journal.
More on school policy: Education Department’s latest priority: ‘Patriotic education’
This is the latest move in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign to remodel higher education, in which institutions were previously targeted on an individual basis.
The federal government successfully managed to force the University of Pennsylvania’s athletics program to enforce a strict two-gender policy. Moreover, Princeton University regained $1.3 billion in funding after agreeing to place its Middle Eastern studies department under academic receivership, pay a $20 million employment discrimination settlement and more.
While the Trump administration continues to gain leverage over institutions by targeting their funding, a federal judge recently demanded the federal government to restore research grants at Harvard and the University of California.
Nevertheless, the Department of Education’s latest memo, dubbed the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” aimed at institutional funding.
“Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits,” the memo read.
Here are the Trump administration’s 10 principles:
As confirmed by The New York Times, The Hill, and CNBC, here are some of the most prominent principles outlined in the memo.
- Institutions with endowments exceeding $2 million per undergraduate must provide free tuition to students studying a “hard science,” such as math, biology or other STEM subjects.
- Reduce student debt by cutting costs and freezing tuition for the next five years.
- Revise their governance structures to ensure all ideological viewpoints are present on campus, and school policy must prevent discriminatory or threatening behaviors.
- Disclose earnings by major and refund early dropouts.
- Cap international student enrollment at 15% and ensure no country’s students represent more than 5% of the total student body.
- Ban the use of sex or race in hiring or admissions.
- Ban transgender women from women’s locker rooms and sports teams.
The University of Texas is the only institution to respond to the memo thus far. “We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately,” Kevin P. Eltife, the chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regent, said in a statement.
However, two prominent higher education nonprofits are urging universities to reject the compact and described it as “entirely corrupt.”
“The Trump administration’s offer to give preferential treatment to colleges and universities that court government favor stinks of favoritism, patronage, and bribery in exchange for allegiance to a partisan ideological agenda,” AAUP President Todd Wolfson and American Freedom of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement.
