\n<\/p>\n
The University of Arizona is the latest institution to reject an offer to sign on to the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cCompact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,\u201d issuing its response on the same day feedback on the proposal was due.<\/p>\n
While some universities have rejected the compact outright, Arizona president Suresh Garimella announced the decision in a message to the campus community that sent mixed signals. \u201cThe university has not agreed to the terms outlined in the draft proposal,\u201d Garimella wrote. He emphasized the need to preserve \u201cprinciples like academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence.\u201d <\/p>\n
At the same time, he said that some of the compact\u2019s provisions \u201cdeserve thoughtful consideration as our national higher education system could benefit from reforms that have been much too slow to develop,\u201d noting that many were already in place at Arizona. He added that the federal government said it was \u201cseeking constructive dialogue rather than a definitive written response.\u201d <\/p>\n
Indeed, in a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Garimella indicated an openness to further engagement. \u201cWe have much common ground with the ideas your administration is advancing on changes that would benefit American higher education and our nation at large,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n
Still, he took issue with the administration\u2019s promise of giving signatories preferential treatment in research funding. \u201cA federal research funding system based on anything other than merit would weaken the world\u2019s preeminent engine for innovation, advancement of technology, and solutions to many of our nation\u2019s most profound challenges,\u201d he wrote to McMahon. \u201cWe seek no special treatment and believe in our ability to compete for federally funded research strictly on merit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arizona was one of nine universities the Trump administration reached out to on Oct.\u00a01 offering preferential treatment for federal research funding if they agreed to a compact that would overhaul admissions and hiring, cap international enrollment at 15\u00a0percent, revise academic offerings, suppress criticism of conservatives, freeze tuition for five years, and more.<\/p>\n
Amid some rejections from the original nine, the federal government sent additional invitations earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Institutions initially invited to join were Brown University, Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University. Invitations were later sent to Arizona State University, the University of Kansas and Washington University in St. Louis. <\/p>\n
Six of the original invitees have declined to sign: MIT was the first to reject the compact, followed by Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, USC and Virginia.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has since opened the compact to any institution that wishes to join.<\/p>\n
As of Monday, none of the invited institutions had agreed to the deal, despite a recent push from the White House, which included a meeting with several universities last week. Institutions have until Nov.\u00a021 to make a final decision about whether to sign, according to a letter McMahon sent with the proposal.<\/p>\n
Washington University in St. Louis officials indicated Monday they remain open to the idea.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Andrew Martin announced that the university would provide feedback, or, as he put it, \u201cparticipate in a conversation about the future of higher education\u201d with the Trump administration. Martin emphasized the importance of having \u201ca seat at the table\u201d for such discussions but said those talks did not equate to signing the compact.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important for you to know that our participation in this dialogue does not mean we have endorsed or signed on to the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education<\/em> presented to us for feedback by the federal administration. We have not done that. In addition, this decision was not made to advantage ourselves or gain any type of preferential benefit,\u201d Martin wrote. \u201cWe firmly believe meaningful progress will best be achieved through open, ongoing dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n An Arizona State spokesperson also left open the option to join the compact, writing to Inside Higher Ed<\/em> by email, \u201cASU has long been a voice for change in higher education and as President Trump\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Vanderbilt chancellor Daniel Diermeier noted in an email to the campus community that the university intended to offer feedback on the proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite reporting to the contrary, we have not been asked to accept or reject the draft compact,\u201d Diermeier wrote. \u201cRather, we have been asked to provide feedback and comments as part of an ongoing dialogue, and that is our intention.\u201d <\/p>\n But other universities stayed silent on the day of the initial deadline.<\/p>\n University of Texas system officials initially announced they were \u201chonored\u201d that the flagship was invited to join, but Austin officials did not have an update on where that invitation stands. Kansas did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The University of Arizona is the latest institution to reject an offer to sign on to the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cCompact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,\u201d issuing its response on the same day feedback on the proposal was due. While some universities have rejected the compact outright, Arizona president Suresh Garimella announced the decision in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[4861,10497,2957,3866,1803,7559],"class_list":{"0":"post-29480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-compact","10":"tag-leave","11":"tag-open","12":"tag-options","13":"tag-rejects"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29480","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=29480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}