The fight over academic freedom and institutional independence in U.S. higher education intensified after the University of Virginia joined a growing list of universities rejecting a White House proposal that ties expanded federal funding to sweeping policy changes.
The Trump administration sent letters to nine major universities earlier this month, offering preferential access to grants and federal partnerships in exchange for adopting a new set of ideological and administrative reforms. The compact would require universities to stop considering sex and ethnicity in admissions, cap international enrollment at 15 percent, freeze tuition for five years, and restructure programs deemed hostile to conservative viewpoints.
After a meeting at the White House on Friday, the University of Virginia formally declined the offer, saying it valued collaboration over compliance. “While there are many areas of agreement in the proposed compact, we believe that the best path toward real and durable progress lies in an open and collaborative conversation,” interim President Paul Mahoney said in a statement.
Five other universities — the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — have also refused to join the compact. A White House official confirmed that other schools, including Vanderbilt University and the University of Arizona, are still reviewing the proposal.
The administration described the compact as an initiative for “the proactive improvement of higher education for the betterment of the country.” It aims to create what it calls “a vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus,” free from ideological dominance. However, university leaders argue that the conditions outlined in the compact would compromise their ability to uphold academic integrity and self-governance.
Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock said in a statement Saturday that signing the compact “would compromise our academic freedom, our ability to govern ourselves, and the principle that federal research funds should be awarded to the best, most promising ideas.” MIT President Sally Kornbluth also warned that the agreement “would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution.”
At the University of Pennsylvania, President J. Larry Jameson said the school declined the offer after consulting with faculty, trustees, and students. “Penn provided focused feedback highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns,” he said.
USC Interim President Beong-Soo Kim, in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, wrote that the compact’s conditions would “undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the Compact seeks to promote.”
The White House has framed the compact as an effort to reform universities accused of bias and mismanagement, but many institutions see it as a political intrusion into academic policy. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already warned that his state could withhold funding from universities that accept the agreement.
The administration has also expanded the list of invited institutions to include Arizona State University, the University of Kansas, and Washington University in St. Louis. Those schools attended Friday’s White House meeting alongside Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, and UVA.
While a few universities remain undecided, most of the responses so far reflect a firm defense of academic autonomy. Brown University President Christina Paxson said the proposed compact “would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance.”
The Trump administration has made higher education reform a priority in its second term, seeking greater oversight of universities it claims have become politically one-sided. The White House maintains that joining the compact would give universities “a competitive advantage” in securing federal grants and partnerships.
Still, with six universities already rejecting the plan, the administration faces mounting resistance from academic institutions determined to protect their independence from federal influence.
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