One of the cornerstones of America is free thought, and thus, the ability to think at a higher level is a necessity for the millions of students applying to or currently attending universities in America. However, President Donald Trump’s administration has a different plan in mind with its recently-released Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, which promises federal funding in exchange for policy changes that correlate to the Trump agenda.
Trump first offered his compact to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Southern California, the University of Virginia, Brown University, the University of Arizona, and Dartmouth University. Trump posted on his Truth Social account that schools like these are “corrupting our Youth and Society with WOKE, SOCIALIST, and ANTI-AMERICAN Ideology,” and that he intends to get his administration involved to change the educational system.
The compact contains many requirements about the political and social atmosphere of the universities it targets. It aims to define gender based on reproductive organs and not identity, abolish units that belittle conservative students, and ban the consideration of sex, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and political views in admission and financial aid decisions. It also aims to limit the amount of foreign students in American universities and require all employees to abstain from actions and speech regarding politics.
MIT, which was the first college to respond to Trump’s compact, strongly opposed his ideas. The MIT Chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote in a statement that “universities do not exist to fall into ‘alignment’ with the ideological agendas of the administration that day.”
Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, wrote that “the premise of the document is inconsistent with [their] core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”
After MIT’s response, many other schools chimed in, including Penn. Penn President J. Larry Jameson wrote in an official statement that “[he takes] great pride in Penn as a scholarly community built on the open exchange of ideas” and noted that Penn is “committed to merit-based achievement and accountability.”
After Trump decided to open up his compact to any university willing to accept it, the only acception of the compact so far has come from the New College of Florida. Other universities that accept may receive financial benefits, while universities that decline may continue to see grants frozen or face financial difficulties from legal battles with the Trump administration.
As officials at both MIT and Penn have said, a clash between government ideologies and educational atmosphere could be dangerous. While Trump is still pushing his compact, it is ultimately up to the people to decide whether or not they want to mix the freedom of education with the values of the Trump administration.