The Trump administration has found yet another way to bring universities to heel.
No longer content to just yank federal funding to compel compliance, President Donald Trump—ever the tacky salesman—came up with a new idea: forcing schools to agree to a 10-point “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” in exchange for preferential access to federal funds.
There’s no doubt that the administration thinks this is a cute way to sidestep accusations about—and lawsuits over—its illegal withholding of federal funds from universities that have displeased King Trump in some way. But this arrangement is no better.
President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon
Essentially, schools will get more federal money if they agree to let the government tell them what to do. Much of this is just an incoherent demand for affirmative action, but only for conservatives. Schools need to have a “vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus” while simultaneously agreeing that no employees can express any political views on behalf of the school.
The compact also literally demands schools to be more welcoming to conservatives, which includes abolishing any departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
So a vibrant marketplace of ideas, but one where schools put their thumb on the scale for conservatives, who basically can’t compete in the marketplace of ideas in higher education.
Other demands include a five-year tuition freeze, requiring applicants to take the SAT or other standardized test, and halting grade inflation. And, of course, there are demands that there be no race-or sex-based preferences in hiring and that transgender women be barred from women’s locker rooms and sports.
Schools would also have to cap undergraduate enrollment at 15%, with no more than 5% of students coming from one country. For schools with endowments exceeding a certain threshold, students enrolled in “hard science” majors would have their tuition waived.
So all that schools need to do to get “multiple positive benefits,” including “substantial and meaningful federal grants,” is to totally alter their curriculum, departments, admissions, hiring, and sports teams to conform to whatever racist, transphobic, or xenophobic thought that skitters across Trump’s gray matter at any given time. Just some minor tweaks, really.
Agreeing to basically give over school governance to the government does come with one significant benefit. Signing the compact apparently shows that a school is in compliance with federal civil rights laws, allowing it to basically evade the administration’s fake, retaliatory civil rights “investigations.”
And just to make sure that schools don’t sneak any diversity or liberal ideas back in, they would have to agree to hire an independent auditor to oversee the school’s adherence to the compact and report back to the Department of Justice. Schools that sign the compact also get invitations to the White House and meetings with officials.
A cartoon by Clay Bennett.
Man, imagine selling out your school just to get an invite to the gold-plated monstrosity that is the Oval Office these days.
Nine schools received this initial “invitation”: Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Arizona, Brown University, and the University of Virginia.
The schools were apparently chosen because the Trump administration views them as “highly reasonable.” What does highly reasonable mean to these people? Per May Mailman, the unqualified toddler overseeing this, it means that “they have a president who is a reformer or a board that has really indicated they are committed to a higher-quality education.”
Ah, so they have a conservative willing to buckle.
At least one school on the list is absolutely ready to lick this boot.
Here’s Kevin Eltife, chair of the University of Texas Board of Regents:
“The University of Texas system is honored that our flagship — the University of Texas at Austin — has been named as one of only nine institutions in the U.S. selected by the Trump administration for potential funding advantages under its new Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately.”
Damn, dude. Have a little dignity.
The notion of a “compact” between the government and higher education institutions forced to adopt the government’s views is wildly authoritarian. But Trump isn’t going to stop until he has destroyed the independence of U.S. universities.
Can’t have people learning about things that might make them critical of conservatives, right?
