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Brown University has rejected the Trump administration’s proposed compact, which would have required the university to make changes to its campus policies in exchange for an advantage in receiving federal funds.
In a Wednesday letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and White House aides May Mailman and Vincent Haley, Brown President Christina Paxson said she was “concerned” that agreeing to the compact “would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance.”
Paxson notes that while she is willing to cooperate with the federal government and is “committed to contributing to national conversations about principles for improving American higher education,” the compact does not recognize “the government’s lack of authority to dictate our curriculum or the content of academic speech.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House and Department of Education for comment.
On Oct. 1, the administration sent the 10-part proposal, titled the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” to nine schools: Brown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona and the University of Virginia.
The memo outlines a variety of policy changes schools would have to make, including freezing tuition for five years, banning transgender women from women’s locker rooms and athletic teams, promoting a “vibrant marketplace of ideas,” expanding opportunities for service members and capping the percentage of the student body from foreign countries at 15 percent.
In exchange, the schools would get preferential treatment in receiving federal research funding.
MIT became the first university to publicly reject the compact last week. Bloomberg reported Monday that the administration is inviting all U.S. colleges to agree to the compact.
In July, Brown and the administration reached a deal to end three antidiscrmination investigations into the university and restore $500 million in federal research funding.
The agreement called for Brown to pay $50 million over 10 years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island, separate men’s and women’s sports facilities on the basis of sex, prohibit its health system from prescribing puberty blockers or conducting gender reassignment surgeries on minors and use “merit-based admissions policies.”
Paxson, in referencing the July deal, said Brown “asserted our commitment to equality of opportunity in admissions and hiring while sustaining a respectful community that is free of harassment and discrimination.”
Brown Rise Up, a student-led group that advocated against the university agreeing to the compact, called Paxson’s letter “a major win” but said the administration’s “attack on higher education and Brown is not over” on its Instagram story.
“More than ever, we need your support, the students, faculty, alumni and community — to fight back against Trump’s encroachment onto our schools. BROWN ROSE UP,” the group added.
