UT official "honored" to receive Trump's university demands
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The top official overseeing the University of Texas welcomed the Trump administration's conservative-minded demands on education administration in exchange for federal funding preferences.
Why it matters: Texas' top public university is now at the forefront of the Trump administration's latest effort to bring universities to heel as part of its anti-woke agenda.
Catch up quick: UT was one of nine universities this week to receive a letter from White House officials that reportedly includes a 10-page "Compact for Excellence in Higher Education" demanding that universities cap the enrollment of international students, commit to strict definitions of gender and freeze tuition for five years.
- The universities would also be required to prohibit anything that would "punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas," per the New York Times.
- Schools that sign the agreement would receive "multiple positive benefits," the letter says, per the Times.
- Axios has filed a public information request for a copy of the letter.
What they're saying: "The University of Texas system is honored that our flagship — the University of Texas at Austin — has been named as one of only nine institutions in the U.S. selected by the Trump administration for potential funding advantage," Kevin Eltife, the chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, said in a statement.
- "We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately," Eltife said.
- Asked about the views of the UT president and provost, a university spokesman directed Axios to Eltife's statement.
The other side: Pauline Strong, who heads the UT chapter of the American Association of University Professors, urged Eltife and university president Jim Davis to reject the deal.
- The compact "trades autonomy for subservience, academic freedom for censorship, gender science and history for ideology, and the best interests of UT students and faculty for the favor of an administration intent on destroying our university," Strong said in a statement to the Texas Tribune.
Flashback: UT lost $47 million in federal grants earlier this year, as part of research funding cuts by the Trump administration, per the Austin American-Statesman.
Between the lines: New UT provost William Inboden prescribed more emphasis on Western civilization and a classical liberal arts curriculum as ways to restore public trust in universities in a recent essay in National Affairs, a journal of the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Zoom out: Other universities to receive the letter were the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia, per the New York Times.