Universities That Rejected White House Funding With Attached Demands
- Isabel Lopez Herrera
- Jan 13
- 2 min read
The Trump administration sent nine universities letters on October 1, offering to join a compact that would offer funding in exchange for a list of changes in their schools. Seven out of nine universities have rejected the funding offered by the White House, including the University of Virginia (UVA), Dartmouth College, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California (USC), the University of Arizona, and M.I.T.
The funding contains a compact which includes conditions such as “academic freedom is not absolute” and even states to shut down “institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas.” Trump and his administration suggested that if the schools were to accept this plan, they would offer more funding to them in order for the schools to accept it. Additionally, the compact states, “no factor such as sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations, or proxies for any of those factors shall be considered, explicitly or implicitly, in any decision related to undergraduate or graduate.” It was said in the letter that the factors such as sex and ethnicity were to be removed from admissions consideration in order to foster a “vibrant marketplace of ideas where different views can be explored, debated, and challenged.”
The letter said the compact would require the universities, including the faculty, students, and staff, to “publicly report anonymized data for admitted and rejected students, including GPA,
standardized test score, or other program-specific measures of accomplishments, by race,
national origin, and sex” to view if universities were complying with the agreement.
These universities have been targeted by Trump’s administration for some time,
although this is not the administration's first attempt to get the universities to comply with
promoting its ideals. The schools have been involved in funding problems since Trump and his administration arrived in office. Signing the compact would give the universities “a competitive advantage,” a White House official previously said. The letter also said that it would “yield multiple positive benefits for the school, including allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships.”
University of Arizona, President Suresh Garimella wrote a letter addressed to Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, which said, “We seek no special treatment and believe in our
ability to compete for federally funded research strictly on merit.” Meanwhile, Vanderbilt said that it was only engaging in dialogue rather than accepting or rejecting the compact, similar to the University of Texas at Austin who said they were reviewing the compact.
Romine, Taylor, and Betsy Klein. “7 Universities Reject White House Funding Deal with
Attached Demands. Other Schools Have yet to Respond.” CNN, Cable News Network,
Blinder, Alan. “All but 2 Universities Decline a Trump Offer of Preferential Funding - The New
York Times.” New York Times, 20 Oct. 2025,
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