Overview

• Letters went Wednesday to Vanderbilt, Dartmouth, Penn, USC, MIT, UT Austin, Arizona, Brown and Virginia, inviting feedback and positioning them as potential initial signatories.
• The compact demands a five-year tuition freeze, reinstated SAT/ACT testing, a 15% cap on international undergraduates, bans on using race or sex in admissions and hiring, and adoption of biological definitions for facilities and women’s sports.
• Participating schools must foster a “vibrant marketplace of ideas,” pursue institutional neutrality, and transform or abolish units seen as punishing conservative views, with annual anonymous surveys to gauge compliance.
• Signatories would receive priority for federal grants, increased overhead where feasible, and White House access, while enforcement would involve Justice Department review and penalties including loss of benefits for at least a year.
• Universities say they are reviewing the offer, the UT System’s board chair called UT Austin’s inclusion an honor, higher-education leaders warn of government overreach, and past settlements with Columbia and Brown frame the stakes as Harvard’s case continues.