\n<\/p>\n
Brown settled with the Trump administration earlier this year, but the compact doesn\u2019t offer the same protections, the university president wrote in her rejection of the deal.<\/p>\n
Wolterk\/iStock\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Citing multiple concerns, Brown University on Wednesday rejected an invitation to join the\u00a0\u201cCompact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education\u201d that the Trump administration proposed.<\/p>\n
The compact, initially sent to nine institutions, would require universities to make a number of far-reaching changes, including suppressing criticism of conservatives on campus. Of the original nine, Brown is now the second to reject the deal after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n
The administration has promised preferential treatment on federal funding for those that sign on, though the document itself doesn\u2019t detail those benefits. Higher ed experts and observers have warned against signing, arguing that it threatens institutional independence and give the federal government much more power over universities.<\/p>\n
Following\u00a0MIT\u2019s rejection, the Trump administration said the compact was open to all colleges. But of the original nine invitees, there are no takers so far, though officials at the University of Texas system have indicated they view the proposal favorably. The system\u2019s flagship in Austin was part of the nine.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump is committed to restoring academic excellence and common sense at our higher education institutions,\u201d White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement. \u201cAny university that joins this historic effort will help to positively shape America\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown president Christina Paxson released her response to federal officials Wednesday, arguing that while Brown agreed with some of the aims of the proposal\u2014such as keeping tuition costs down and maintaining a vibrant exchange of ideas across the ideological spectrum\u2014other issues, including academic freedom concerns, prompted the university to reject the compact.<\/p>\n
She also pointed to the\u00a0settlement\u00a0Brown and the Trump administration reached in July to restore more than $500\u00a0million in frozen federal research funding amid an investigation into alleged campus antisemitism. She noted that the agreement \u201creflects similar principles\u201d to the compact. But while the settlement did not wade into campus curriculum or programs, the compact would impose much greater restrictions on academic offerings for signatories.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn return for Brown signing the July agreement, the federal government restored the University\u2019s research funding and permanently closed three pending investigations into shared ancestry discrimination and race discrimination. But most important, Brown\u2019s existing agreement with the federal government expressly affirms the government\u2019s lack of authority to dictate our curriculum or the content of academic speech\u2014a principle that is not reflected in the Compact,\u201d Paxson wrote.<\/p>\n
A White House official said that the settlement was aimed at \u201crectifying past harm and discrimination,\u201d whereas the compact is more \u201cforward looking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paxson also echoed concerns raised by MIT president Sally Kornbluth\u2014who wrote\u00a0in her letter to the Education Department that \u201cscientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone\u201d\u2014and other higher ed groups such as the Association of American Universities, of which Brown is a member.<\/p>\n
Paxson wrote, \u201cA fundamental part of academic excellence is awarding research funding on the merits of the research being proposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dThe cover letter describing the compact contemplates funding research on criteria other than the soundness and likely impact of research, which would ultimately damage the health and prosperity of Americans,\u201d she added. \u201cOur current agreement with the federal government\u2014beyond restoring Brown\u2019s research funding from the National Institutes of Health\u2014affirms the University\u2019s ability to compete fairly for new research grants in the future, a doctrine of fairness and a commitment to excellence that aligns with our values.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, celebrated the decision on social media and in a statement, highlighting efforts by Brown employees to push back against the compact, including a campus protest last week that called on administrators to reject the deal. <\/p>\n
Both the national AAUP and Brown\u2019s AAUP chapter have spoken out against the compact, and faculty at other universities along with students have also urged their leaders to reject the compact.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy declining to compromise its core mission, Brown University has affirmed that no amount of federal inducement is worth surrendering the freedom to question, explore, and dissent,\u201d Wolfson said in the statement. \u201cIn rejecting the Compact, Brown stands as a bulwark for higher education\u2019s sacred commitment to academic freedom and institutional self-governance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Brown settled with the Trump administration earlier this year, but the compact doesn\u2019t offer the same protections, the university president wrote in her rejection of the deal. Wolterk\/iStock\/Getty Images Citing multiple concerns, Brown University on Wednesday rejected an invitation to join the\u00a0\u201cCompact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education\u201d that the Trump administration proposed. The compact,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1798,10497,495,7559,71,781],"class_list":{"0":"post-28403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-brown","9":"tag-compact","10":"tag-higher","11":"tag-rejects","12":"tag-trumps","13":"tag-university"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}