Overview
- Six of the nine initially targeted universities—MIT, Brown, Penn, USC, UVA and Dartmouth—have publicly declined, and none have signed as an Oct. 20 feedback deadline approaches.
- The White House held a Friday call with undecided invitees and broadened participation by asking Arizona State, the University of Kansas and Washington University in St. Louis to join the discussion.
- The nine-page compact conditions priority federal support on sweeping changes including a five-year tuition freeze, a 15% cap on international undergraduates, bans on using race or sex in admissions and hiring, reinstated testing, and binary gender definitions for facilities and athletics.
- A White House spokesperson said signatories would receive preferential access to grants and warned nonparticipants could forfeit future federal backing, while Justice Department enforcement is referenced in the plan.
- Major sector groups led by the American Council on Education urged the administration to withdraw the compact, and state officials and campus constituencies mounted opposition, further isolating the proposal.