UPenn rejects Trump higher ed compact after faculty senate pressure
The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has rejected the Trump administration’s invitation to participate in a compact seeking to improve higher education, following pressure from the school’s faculty senate.
The University of Pennsylvania, which was one of the nine original schools to receive the invitation, rejected the offer on Oct. 16.
The University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has rejected the Trump administration’s invitation to participate in a compact seeking to improve higher education, following pressure from the school’s faculty senate.
The Trump administration invited nine universities to join its “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” on Oct. 1 to combat “woke” ideology in return for financial benefits, The Wall Street Journal first reported. The administration extended the offer to all colleges and universities on Oct. 12.
The compact promotes merit-based admissions by eliminating race and sex-based admissions, freezing tuition, and limiting international student enrollment.
The University of Pennsylvania, which was one of the nine original schools to receive the invitation, rejected the offer on Oct. 16.
“At Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability,” President J. Larry Jameson said in a message to the university community. “The long-standing partnership between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress.”
On Oct. 15, a day before the university’s published decision, the faculty senate endorsed a message urging the school to reject the compact and “any other proposal that similarly threatens our mission and values.”
The senate, which believes the compact represents a federal overreach into the affairs of independent universities, published a separate message on Oct. 21.
“The ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’ demands that American universities surrender their institutional autonomy and place themselves under the control of the U.S. Federal Government,” the senate wrote. “We reject that demand.”
“Autonomy is the lifeblood of universities: it enables them to determine their curricula, produce valuable research, promote innovation, uphold the principles of open inquiry and free speech, and educate future leaders without undue external interference,” the press release continued.
“The ‘Compact’ erodes the foundation on which higher education in the United States is built,” the message states.
No university has accepted the Trump administration’s offer to participate in the compact thus far. Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas have not responded to the administration’s invitation.
Vanderbilt has hinted interested in accepting the offer, despite widespread protest from faculty and students. Specifically, Chancellor Daniel Diermeier affirmed a “merit-based approach” to academics and institutional neutrality in an open letter on Oct. 20.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Pennsylvania’s faculty senate for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
