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47m ago

White House Offers Funding Edge to 9 Universities That Sign 10-Point Campus Compact

The proposal ties priority access to federal research money to sweeping demands on admissions, speech, gender rules, tuition.

FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
FILE - Passers-by walk and ride along a path on the campus of Brown University, in Providence, R.I., Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
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Students walk past the Faye and Joe Wyatt Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Nov. 27, 2023.

Overview

  • The White House on Oct. 1 sent the compact to Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth, USC, MIT, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown, and the University of Virginia, offering preference for certain federal grants and White House access.
  • The 10-point terms include a five-year tuition freeze, bans on using race or sex in hiring and admissions, required SAT/ACT testing, a 15% cap on international undergraduates, and adoption of strict gender definitions for facilities and women’s sports.
  • Participating schools must foster a "vibrant marketplace of ideas," consider reorganizing or abolishing units viewed as hostile to conservative viewpoints, adopt institutional neutrality policies, and tighten rules on disruptive demonstrations.
  • Compliance would be checked by annual anonymous polling of students, faculty, and staff, with Justice Department enforcement and loss of compact benefits for at least a year after violations, with longer penalties for repeat offenses.
  • Early responses vary as UT’s regents welcomed review, higher-education leaders and free-speech advocates warned of federal overreach, California’s governor threatened to pull state funds from any California campus that signs, and the White House signaled possible expansion with feedback invited and decisions requested by Nov. 21.