After a rally this afternoon with thousands of participants, the University of Virginia has rejected a compact sent by the Trump administration.
The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” was sent to nine universities promising grant money and overhead payment in exchange for fealty to the president’s agenda for higher education.
In its letter declining to participate, UVA said it believed funding should be awarded based on merit, not a piece of paper.
UVA becomes the first public university to reject the compact. Other schools that have sent letters declining to participate include the University of Southern California (USC), University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brown University.
In a letter from interim President Paul Mahoney to Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, he wrote that the integrity of science and other academic work requires merit-based assessment of research and scholarship.
“A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education,” he wrote.
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Like many of the other schools who rejected the compact, UVA said it agrees with many of the principles outlined in the agreement.
“We also agree with many of the principles outlined in the compact, including a fair and unbiased admissions process, an affordable and academically rigorous education, a thriving marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and equal treatment of students, faculty, and staff in all aspects of university operations,” Mahoney wrote.
“Indeed, the University of Virginia leads in several of these areas and is committed to continuous improvement in all of them. We seek no special treatment in exchange for our pursuit of those foundational goals.”
In an email to the UVA community this afternoon, Mahoney wrote: “We will continue to work to strengthen free expression and free inquiry, protect academic freedom, ensure affordability, promote intellectual pluralism and maintain institutional neutrality in an increasingly polarized world.”
By declining the compact, a letter from the Department of Education that accompanied the compact said the institutions elect to “forego federal benefits.”
The decision comes on the heels of a student led day of action rally held on Grounds at UVA today. More than 1,000 people gathered on the Lawn in unity to demand Mahoney and the UVA Board of Visitors reject the compact.
Organizers said they hoped that the demonstration and response at UVA would give other universities “the courage and clarity not to buckle.”
ICYMI
Four schools – Dartmouth College, University of Arizona, University of Texas and Vanderbilt University – have not announced their decision. The Trump administration requested feedback on the compact by Oct. 20. A final decision is required by Nov. 21.
The Trump administration has reportedly reached out to other universities – Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Kansas and Arizona State – about its proposal due to the large number of rejections from schools it had hoped would be initial signatories that would champion the president’s agenda.
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Crystal Graham
