Penn has rejected the White House’s proposed preferential funding compact, according to a Thursday email to the University community.
The Oct. 16 message, authored by Penn President Larry Jameson, comes after the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education — initially offered to Penn and eight other universities on Oct. 1 — received swift condemnation from across the Penn community. With the decision, Penn becomes the third university to decline the offer.
“Earlier today, I informed the U.S. Department of Education that Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed Compact,” the Oct. 16 email read. “As requested, we also provided focused feedback highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns.”
Penn’s response — sent to Education Secretary Linda McMahon — comes in advance of the federal government’s Oct. 20 deadline for universities to submit feedback. Had the University agreed to the sweeping provisions of the proposal, it would have received federal funding in exchange for committing to significant governance and policy reforms.
In an Oct. 5 message, Jameson announced that the University was “reviewing” the document and would seek input from deans, the Faculty Senate, and the University Board of Trustees to make a final decision.
According to the Tuesday email, Jameson sought input from campus stakeholders to “ensure that [Penn’s] response reflected [Penn’s] values and the perspectives of [Penn’s] broad community.”
White House spokesperson Liz Huston signaled that Penn — and other universities who reject the compact — will not continue to receive federal funding in a Thursday statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian.
“The Compact for Academic Excellence embraces universities that reform their institutions to elevate common sense once again, ushering a new era of American innovation,” Huston wrote. “Any higher education institution unwilling to assume accountability and confront these overdue and necessary reforms will find itself without future government and taxpayers support.”
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Huston further stated that "too many universities have abandoned academic excellence in favor of divisive and destructive efforts.” The White House statement comes after three of the nine universities originally offered the compact have declined to comply.
The compact originally stated that while universities are “free to develop models and values other than those listed in the document,” they will “forgo federal benefit.”
According to the compact, “benefits” of signing include access to student loans, grants, federal contracts, federal and indirect research funding, international student visa approval, and preferential tax treatment.
The proposed agreement — which legal experts and civil rights groups have characterized as “blatantly unconstitutional” — faced immediate criticism following its announcement earlier this month. Over the past two weeks, nearly 2,000 members of the Penn community signed a petition urging the University to reject the proposal.
At a Wednesday meeting, Penn’s Faculty Senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging the University to reject the agreement.
“The ‘Compact’ erodes the foundation on which higher education in the United States is built,” the Oct. 15 resolution read. “The University of Pennsylvania Faculty Senate urges President Jameson and the Board of Trustees to reject it and any other proposal that similarly threatens our mission and values.”
Penn was initially offered the compact because the White House considered it a “good actor,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
In July, Penn became the first university to reach a settlement with the federal government after the Department of Education found it in violation of Title IX. At the time, the Trump administration had proposed three demands — all of which the University ultimately met.
The compact, according to an analysis by The Daily Pennsylvanian, would have had far-reaching impacts on Penn’s admissions, governance, and finances. Among the provisions were a five-year tuition freeze, a cap on international student enrollment at 15%, and a requirement that universities take steps to protect conservative viewpoints.
In a press conference held on Wednesday, several local elected officials threatened to pull state funding if the University were to sign. Following the conference, Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) introduced legislation in the state House of Representatives to discourage Penn from complying.
“At Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability,” Jameson wrote. “The long-standing partnership between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress.”
Wharton School Board of Advisors Chair Marc Rowan was a central author of the initial proposal and advocated for universities to “adhere to the compact’s principles of fairness, civility, neutrality and transparency.”
The document was the latest of Rowan’s initiatives aimed at reforming higher education, which began in 2023 when he successfully orchestrated a pressure campaign to oust then Penn President Liz Magill and former Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok. Shortly following their resignations, Rowan circulated a list of “reform questions” to Penn’s Board of Trustees — many of which mimic provisions in the Oct. 1 compact which Penn has rejected.
