The White House is asking nine U.S. universities to sign an agreement pledging to uphold the Trump administration’s higher education priorities, or risk losing out on preferred access to federal funding.
The demands are outlined in a nine-page document, title the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” that asks schools to freeze their tuition rate for five years, ban the use of sex and gender as factors in their admissions process, and cap their international student numbers, among other requirements.
Signatories also must commit to “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” according to the memo.
According to a White House official, a letter outlining the plan and a copy of the agreement were sent on Wednesday to the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas, University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.
The official declined to say whether the schools face a deadline to sign the agreement and whether the Trump administration plans to make a similar offer to other colleges.
The agreement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. May Mailman, a senior adviser for special projects at the White House, told the paper that the Trump administration doesn’t plan to limit funding only to institutions that agree to abide by the compact. However, schools that sign the agreement will be granted priority in receiving federal funding and engaging with White House officials.
“Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits,” the agreement states.
A copy of the letter sent to universities obtained by CBS News notes that schools that agree to the compact will receive “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships.”
The letter is signed by Mailman; Secretary of Education Linda McMahon; and Vince Haley, director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council.
The Department of Education did not respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
Prioritizing U.S. students
A University of Virginia spokesperson said its interim president, Paul G. Mahoney, has created a working group to advise him on how to respond to the letter. “The University has not yet made any decision regarding the compact,” the spokesperson told CBS News in an email.
The University of Southern California said it is reviewing the letter. MIT acknowledged receiving the material but declined to comment further. The other universities did not immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
In a statement on Thursday, the University of Pennsylvania chapter of the American Association of University Professors said the White House letter amounts to a threat.
“Penn must not allow itself to be threatened into ceding its self-determination,” the group said. “Whatever the consequences of refusal, agreeing would threaten the very mission of the university.”
The agreement places a cap on foreign student enrollment, which it states cannot exceed 15% of a university’s undergraduate population. Also, no more than 5% of foreign students enrolled at a college can come from a single country.
“Universities that rely on foreign students to fund their institutions risk, among other things, potentially reducing spots available to deserving American students,” the document states.
The nine schools are also asked to freeze tuition for five years and to waive tuition for students pursuing “hard science programs” at institutions where the endowment exceeds $2 million per undergraduate student. Schools would not have to freeze tuition for students from “families of exceptional means,” under the agreement.
The letter represents the latest attempt by the Trump administration to reshape the nation’s higher education system. The administration has targeted high-profile universities in recent months, threatening to pull federal funding if they do not agree to certain concessions on combating antisemitism and changing their diversity practices.
Columbia University in July agreed to pay the administration $200 million to resolve an investigation into alleged violations of anti-discrimination laws. The Trump administration earlier this year also suspended roughly $2 billion in federal funding earmarked for Harvard University over what the White House said was the school’s failure to crack down on antisemitism on its campus. Last month, a federal judge ruled that the Harvard funding freeze was illegal.
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Mary Cunningham
