The University of Arizona on Monday became the seventh elite U.S. institution to reject a Trump administration proposal that offered preferential access to federal funding in exchange for adopting a controversial set of education policies.
The proposed agreement, titled “A Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” was sent to nine leading universities earlier this month. It called on institutions to cap international undergraduate enrolment at 15%, prohibit the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions, and define gender strictly on biological terms.
The compact also sought to dismantle or reform campus departments accused of “punishing or belittling conservative ideas,” though it included no comparable protections for liberal viewpoints. In return, participating universities would receive preferential consideration for federal grants and other funding benefits.
In a statement to the campus community, University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella said that while the administration’s recommendations “deserve thoughtful consideration,” the university declined to sign the agreement in order to preserve “academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence.”
Garimella added that the University of Arizona had submitted its own Statement of Principles to the U.S. Department of Education, reaffirming its policies on merit-based hiring and prioritising admission for qualified Arizona students and members of U.S. tribal nations.
Six other prestigious universities Brown, MIT, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, and Dartmouth College had previously rejected the proposal. Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin have not yet announced their positions.
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A White House official confirmed that none of the three remaining universities had signed the compact, adding that “the administration is still listening to feedback from the universities, so there is not a version ready for signature just yet.”
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to reshape higher education by linking federal funding to ideological and policy reforms. The White House has moved to withdraw millions of dollars in contracts from universities over issues such as pro-Palestinian protests, transgender inclusion, and diversity programmes actions that courts have partly overturned.
The proposed compact signals a new front in the administration’s ongoing effort to align academic policy with its broader political agenda, even as major universities continue to resist what they view as federal overreach.
