US President Donald Trump’s administration sent a 10-page proposed agreement on Wednesday, called the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” to nine major US universities. The initiative marks an unprecedented effort by the administration to exercise federal power to reshape higher education in line with the president’s agenda.
The document urges universities to align with the White House’s vision for higher education by committing to federal policy priorities. The schools invited to provide feedback and potentially become “initial signatories” include Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California (USC), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown University, and the University of Virginia (UVA).
The compact outlines sweeping demands, including asking colleges to stop considering race, gender, and other various student demographics in the admissions process, and to require undergraduate applicants to take widely-used standardized tests such as the SAT. It further requires the adoption of definitions of gender “according to reproductive function and biological processes” for use in campus facilities and women’s sports teams. To promote conservative viewpoints, the agreement insists universities commit to “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
Financially, campuses that sign must freeze tuition for US students for five years, and schools with endowments exceeding $2 million per undergraduate student would be asked to waive tuition entirely for students pursuing “hard science” programs. The agreement places a cap on foreign student enrollment, stating that it 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.
This incentive-based approach represents a shift in strategy for the administration, which has previously slashed billions in federal money from schools accused of liberal bias. Discussions about the compact date back to before President Trump took office. The administration has recently targeted high-profile universities, threatening to pull funding over concerns about antisemitism and diversity practices, leading to multimillion-dollar deals with schools like Columbia University and Brown University. A federal judge previously overturned funding cuts at Harvard University in September, ruling the government had overstepped its authority.
Despite the promise of benefits, the compact has faced immediate backlash. California Governor Gavin Newsom threatened, “If any California university signs this radical agreement, they’ll lose billions in state funding — including Cal Grants — instantly.” Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, urged rejection of the deal, calling it a “Faustian bargain” that violates campus independence.
The universities have until November 21, 2025, to finalize an agreement. Compliance with the compact’s terms will be enforced by the Justice Department, requiring annual, anonymous polls of faculty, students, and staff. Institutions that violate the terms would lose access to the compact’s benefits for at least a year.
While some schools like UVA, MIT, and USC are reviewing the compact, University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife stated the system was “honored” and “enthusiastically look[s] forward to engaging.”