UofA rejects Trump's higher ed plan as ASU gets invite to join compact
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UofA will not sign onto a Trump administration higher education compact. Photo: Cheney Orr/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The University of Arizona announced Monday it would not agree to President Trump's higher education proposal as written, which would give the school funding preference in exchange for committing to the administration's political priorities.
Yes, but: Arizona State University is continuing conversations with the White House, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Why it matters: The compact is the Trump administration's latest attempt to rid universities of the liberal bias the MAGA movement believes has overrun higher education.
- It's also a means by which universities can ensure continued federal funding, which Trump has withheld from some schools.
Catch up quick: The Trump administration asked an initial group of nine colleges, including the University of Arizona, to sign on to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education earlier this month.
- It would require the schools to ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions, freeze tuition for five years, cap admission for international students and ensure a "vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus."
- In exchange, compliant universities will have priority access to federal grants.
The latest: UofA president Suresh Garimella said in a statement that some of the federal government's proposals deserve "thoughtful consideration," but "principles like academic freedom, merit-based research funding and institutional independence are foundational and must be preserved."
- Therefore, UofA chose not to agree to the draft compact and instead sent a Statement of Principles to the Department of Education, outlining the school's commitment to collaborating with the federal government.
Meanwhile, ASU received an invitation to consider the compact last week after several initial invitees declined to sign, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
- The White House invited representatives from both Arizona universities to participate in a meeting last Friday to offer input on the proposal.
The intrigue: ASU is "interested in an agreement with the administration on a set of shared principles … but has concerns about the legal nature of the compact," per WSJ.
- The university is specifically worried about the tuition freeze and the cap on international student enrollment, according to the article.
What they're saying: "ASU has long been a voice for change in higher education and as President Trump's team seeks new and innovative approaches to serve the needs of the country, ASU has engaged in dialogue and offered ideas about how to do so," the school said in a statement to Axios.
The other side: Democrats have been highly critical of the compact and urged local institutions to reject it.
- U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Phoenix), who represents ASU's Tempe campus, said in a statement, "By dictating who universities admit and hire, what they teach, and even how they conduct research, the Trump administration aims to strip higher education of its independence and bend it into an arm of his political power."