Brown faces pressure to sign Trump administration ‘compact’ tied to funding incentives
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The Trump administration has asked Brown University and eight other schools to sign a memo which would overhaul admissions, hiring, and campus speech policies in exchange for federal funding benefits.
The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” issued Wednesday night by White House officials, outlines restrictions on how universities handle financial aid, tuition, foreign enrollment, and political expression.
According to the Associated Press, the 10-page document was sent to the following schools: Brown University, Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, and the University of Virginia.
If signed, universities would be banned from considering sex, race, or religion in admissions and hiring decisions. It also requires the government’s definition of gender, based on biological and reproductive function, to be applied to campus bathrooms, locker rooms and women’s sports.
The compact also promotes “institutional neutrality,” meaning staff could not take public positions on social or political issues on behalf of their institutions unless they directly affected the school.
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To reduce administrative costs and increase affordability, universities would be required to freeze tuition for American students for five years, publish statistics on graduates’ average earnings, and refund tuition to undergraduates who withdraw during their first semester.
It also limits international enrollment: no more than 15% of undergraduates could be from outside the U.S., and no more than 5% from any single country. Universities would have to share “all known information” on foreign students with the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
The memo warns that institutions relying heavily on international enrollment risk “reducing spots available to deserving American students” and, if students are “not properly vetted,” could create national security threats, “saturating the campus with noxious values such as anti-Semitism and other anti-American values.”
Schools are also called to foster a “vibrant marketplace of ideas” while eliminating or revising programs that “purposefully punish or belittle” conservative viewpoints. Additionally, it requires policies that prohibit incitement of violence, including pushes for murder or genocide and “support for entities designated by the U.S. government as terrorist organizations.”
Violations of the compact would carry escalating penalties, first with loss of funding benefits, and further breaches could potentially result in the repayment of any federal funding, as well as private contributions, during that period.
The letter attached reportedly invites feedback and asks for a decision by Nov. 21.
‘Attacks on the mission of higher education’
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Rhode Island sent a letter to Brown’s president on Friday, condemning the proposal as a disguised threat to cut funding unless the university complies. The group called it a “blatant attempt” to undermine higher education and “destroy academic freedom.”
According to the ACLU, the compact would silence employees on political issues, sharply limit foreign enrollment, and force universities to “essentially deny” the existence of transgender students.
The group said that Brown’s recent agreement with the Trump administration only “empowered and emboldened” the government to demand more.
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The letter urged Brown to “immediately, publicly, and unequivocally” denounce the proposal, calling it unconstitutional.
“It is only by sending a clear, strong, and visible message that these attacks on the mission of higher education will not be tolerated that one can ever hope to stop them,” the letter stated. “Therefore, we urge you to not only resist these and any further unconstitutional demands from this administration, but to forcefully and publicly reject them and urge your colleagues to do the same.”
The ACLU also warned that universities’ response to the proposal could “determine the fate” of higher education’s autonomy for decades.
Brown University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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