Calls are coming from left, right and center for the University of Virginia to reject, or at least consider carefully, President Donald Trump’s compact, which would link the school’s federal funding to the administration’s priorities on hiring, admissions, tuition and more.
Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education has managed to make allies of many individuals and groups often at odds with each other, including faculty, staff, students, a conservative alumni association, Democratic state lawmakers and UVa’s top political scientist.
UVa and eight other colleges were given until Nov. 21 to sign on to Trump’s offer, which demands, among other things, the university restrict employees from expressing political views on behalf of the school, cap tuition for five years, limit international undergraduate enrollment and transform or abolish “institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon penned a letter to UVa interim President Paul Mahoney emphasizing that the compact’s demands would be in addition to the work UVa is doing now to resolve multiple federal investigations into reported antisemitism, free speech violations and discriminatory admissions and hiring policies at the university. While two of those investigations have been closed, five remain open.
“While the Administration will continue to address ongoing or past violations of civil rights and concerning actions contrary to the interests of the United States, the opportunity presented here is designed to be different,” reads the letter dated Oct. 1. “Compact signatory schools will signal to students, parents, and contributors that learning and equality are university priorities. In addition, the Federal Government would have assurance that signatory schools are complying with civil rights law and pursuing Federal priorities with vigor.”
Larry Sabato, director of the UVa Center for Politics, said the compact is nothing short of “extortion.”
“No college with integrity would ever agree to Trump’s demands,” he posted on X Oct. 4.
“Thomas Jefferson’s University must never sign on to such an outlandish decree,” he added. “Wrote Jefferson: ‘For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.’”
The UVa Faculty Senate passed a resolution Oct. 3 saying it “firmly opposes” the compact and urging the university reject “any similar proposal compromising the mission, values, and independence of the University.”
Faculty in the UVa College of Arts and Sciences overwhelmingly voted on Monday for Mahoney to reject the compact, calling it a threat to academic freedom.
Walt Heinecke, a professor at the UVa School of Education and the immediate past president of UVa’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said the compact “switches out law for the art of the deal.”
“We pride ourselves on merit,” he told The Daily Progress. “This changes that whole equation and basically says you get a grant if you’re ideologically aligned with the Trump administration. So there goes quality and merit right out the window.”
Heinecke said the White House has framed the compact as a way to free institutions, such as UVa, that have been under immense scrutiny since Trump retook office in January. But it does the exact opposite, he said.
“If you sign the compact, you’re under perpetual supervision and perpetual examination by the Department of Justice on almost everything that we do here that matters,” he said.
Joel Gardner, president of the Jefferson Council alumni association, which often aligns with Trump’s higher education priorities, said that while the compact addresses serious issues at the university, it is not necessarily the federal government’s place to do so.
“The Jefferson Council itself hasn’t taken a specific position. I think there are mixed feelings,” he told The Daily Progress. “I personally think there’s a lot of very important points in there that the university, frankly, should adopt on its own without having to sign the compact.”
While questioning the White House’s involvement, Gardner said there are some issues, such as intellectual diversity and administrative bloat that increases tuition costs, that might only be solved through a deal like the one Trump offered.
“I question if the federal government ought to be involved in having agreements like this,” he said. “But some of these problems are so serious that this may be the only way to get them solved.
Trump’s offer to open up federal funding could put state funding at risk, according to Virginia lawmakers.
This past week, Democratic leaders in the Virginia Senate told UVa administrators that signing on to the compact would do just that.
“If the University of Virginia signs this compact, there will be significant consequences in future Virginia budget cycles,” wrote Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, and Sens. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, and Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, in a letter dated Tuesday. Colleges depend heavily on their state funding; this year, UVa got more than $200 million in education funds from the state, money the university uses to pay professors’ wages.
The senators wrote that what the Trump administration is asking for is “fundamentally incompatible” with UVa’s mission and values, describing the compact as federal intrusion into a college’s autonomy.
“This is not a partnership,” the senators wrote. “It is, as other university leaders have aptly described, political extortion.”
UVa leaders have not directly said they will oppose Trump’s compact, but they have cast doubt on it.
Mahoney and UVa Rector Rachel Sheridan have formed a working group to study and advise university administrators on a response.
Mahoney and Sheridan said in a Monday letter to the university community that “it would be difficult” for UVa to agree to certain provisions Trump proposed.
They repeated the same sentiment in a letter sent to the Democratic leaders of the state Senate.
“For the past two centuries, through all manner of crises and controversies, the university has steadfastly maintained its founding commitment. As the current stewards of that legacy, we have no intention of abandoning the university’s principles,” they wrote in a letter dated Thursday.
At the same meeting where the UVa Faculty Senate passed its resolution, Mahoney framed Trump’s compact as a positive development.
“Although this is going to cause a fair bit of anxiety and disagreement, it’s better to have received that letter than not to have received that letter, because we now have an option,” he said. “We can have discussions, presumably, with the Department of Education and the White House. We can ultimately decide whether this is in the university’s best interests or not.”
When The Daily Progress inquired with the Department of Education as to why UVa had been offered the compact, over other colleges, the federal agency did not provide a response, citing the ongoing shutdown of the federal government.
The eight others schools invited to sign on to Trump’s compact include the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas and Vanderbilt University.
Gardner said it isn’t exactly an honor for UVa to be among the nine.
“Is that an honor to be there? I don’t know. I wouldn’t see it as being an honor,” he said. “I think what they seem to be saying is ‘You all have had some issues in the past, here’s a way you can get over it.’”
David Velazquez (919) 612-7026
david.velazquez@dailyprogress.com
@velazqdave on X
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