Trump demands universities sign ‘academic excellence agreement’ to receive federal funds

The Donald Trump administration has asked US universities to sign an “academic excellence agreement” in exchange for access to federal funds.

The White House sent a document to nine universities threatening the loss of money for student loans, grants, research funding, and tax advantages, demanding a commitment to eliminate all forms of discrimination in faculty hiring and student admissions.

The memo, seen by the Financial Times, includes a demand for “institutional neutrality” and the “transformation or elimination of institutional units that intentionally penalize, disparage, and even lead to violence against conservative ideas.”

It also proposes, as a condition for receiving federal funds, that tuition fees be frozen for five years and the proportion of international undergraduate students be capped at 15%.

Wealthier institutions with endowments of more than $2 million per student would be required to offer free tuition to anyone studying the “hard sciences.”

“Academic freedom is not absolute, and universities must adopt policies that prevent discriminatory, threatening, harassing, or other behaviors that restrict the rights of other members of the university community,” the proposed agreement states.

A White House official confirmed the details of the pledge. The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which stated the pledge was sent to Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown University, and the University of Virginia.

Universities and academics have condemned the proposal. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, said, “Efforts to reward or punish institutions based on their adherence to the views of government officials should disturb all Americans. It is not the role of the federal government to define the elements that constitute a vibrant and unfettered intellectual environment, and the effects on free speech and academic freedom are chilling.”

In a joint statement, the presidents of the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers said, “The Trump administration’s proposal to give preferential treatment to colleges and universities that win the government’s favor smacks of cronyism, patronage, and bribery in exchange for adherence to a partisan ideological agenda. This is utterly corrupt.”

California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, warned that all institutions in his state would lose state funding if they signed the document.

“President Donald Trump’s so-called ‘agreement’ is nothing short of a hostile takeover of America’s universities,” Newsom said. “This deal would impose rigid, government-dictated definitions of academic terms, eliminate diversity, and wrest control from campus leaders to install a government-imposed conservative ideology.”