Over 1,000 Penn community members have signed a petition urging the University to reject the federal government’s proposed higher education compact, which would offer preferential funding in exchange for sweeping reforms to admissions, pricing, and hiring practices.
In interviews and statements to The Daily Pennsylvanian, the compact was broadly described as a threat to the practice of shared governance — where faculty, staff, administrators, boards, and sometimes students share responsibility for decision-making and policy development. The Oct. 3 petition was drafted by Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors and addressed to Penn President Larry Jameson and University Board of Trustees Chair Ramanan Raghavendran.
Titled “Just Say No to Trump's Compact for Academic Extortion,” the petition — which included over five hundred Penn faculty signatories — is the latest effort by AAUP-Penn to promote increased inclusion of faculty and staff perspectives in Penn’s policy development.
“Tell Penn’s leadership that there is nothing to be gained by signing away the rights of its students, faculty, and staff,” the Executive Committee of AAUP-Penn wrote in the petition.
The Executive Committee cited potential violations of faculty and student rights, including free speech, the right to “teach and to learn without government interference,” and “the right of the people of the University to be the ones making the decisions about its future.”
Vice President of AAUP-Penn Lorena Grundy told the DP that agreeing to the compact would significantly reduce the academic freedom and authority of faculty, which she characterized as integral to the survival of shared governance.
“If Penn signs on to this compact in order to gain federal funding, we will be constantly under review by the federal government for our compliance,” Grundy said in an interview with the DP. “Signing over that shared governance to the federal government is something that people are really hesitant about.”
Former Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok also wrote to the DP that “the amount of ongoing surveying, auditing and disclosure required would be intrusive, require a significant bureaucracy and create unhelpful divisions within the University community.”
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“It’s obvious that the nine recipients of the letter were carefully chosen as being more likely to accede than some others,” he wrote. “To the extent they do accede it will unfortunately increase pressure on others to do likewise as the document is addressed to more schools.”
On Sunday, Jameson announced that Penn has begun reviewing the compact with stakeholders across campus, including trustees, deans, and the Faculty Senate.
According to Faculty Senate Chair Kathleen Brown, the first step toward incorporating faculty voices into administrative decisions is to “revitalize the communication networks” that govern those relationships.
In an interview with the DP, Brown explained her decision to call a special meeting of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on Monday to discuss the compact and how the group might advise University leaders.
The Oct. 6 meeting was designed to exchange information, including updates from other universities and faculty governance organizations.
“I think everybody’s better served by having a little bit more time to see something in advance, think about it, maybe talk to some other people, have a discussion, [and] then have a vote,” Brown said.
She continued that many provisions outlined in the compact fall within the “primary authority” of faculty members — including grading, curriculum design, hiring, and “who counts as standing faculty.”
Other clauses, such as restrictions on admission rates, also concern the “faculty wheelhouse” and, historically, have relied heavily on their consultation.
Bok also wrote that the compact’s scope is “extraordinarily broad, and adherence to it would cede to the government important aspects” of Penn’s institutional mission — including faculty conduct and freedom.
“Clearly, the compact would affect the teaching and research mission of faculty,” Brown said. “Getting faculty input on the decision that this institution makes would be very important.”
In a cover letter attached to the compact, the White House requests universities to submit feedback by Oct. 20.
In conversation with the DP, Communication professor and AAUP member Andy Tan criticized the compact’s focus on topics he said “should be the responsibility of the faculty,” including the hiring process.
“These positions are traditionally decided upon by the faculty, not by some administrator who is not part of the standing faculty at Penn and does not have any role in terms of university governance,” Tan said. “If Penn yields to these compact demands, the way instruction, learning, and teaching happen at Penn will be completely, fundamentally destroyed.”
Andrew Vaughan, a School of Veterinary Medicine professor and member of the University’s Faculty Senate, described the compact as “at fundamental odds with self-governance in the University” in an interview with the DP.
“Were we to sign the compact as currently written, it would effectively end any role that the Faculty Senate really has in shared governance,” Vaughan said. “In many ways, it would end any academic independence whatsoever.”
Vaughan added that he hopes University leadership will consider the “values, feelings, and positions” of its constituents — including “faculty and students,” “staff,” and “alumni” — before making any decision regarding how to respond to the federal government’s offer.
“I hope that the University realizes that our stakeholders are more than just the Board of Trustees,” he said. “In the past, I do not have a sense that that was done, for instance, with the Title IX decision.”
In July, Penn settled with the Department of Education over Title IX violations. Following the University’s compliance, the federal government released $175 million in previously frozen federal funding.
Penn Physics and Astronomy professor Andrea Liu — a member of the AAUP who authored an open letter urging the University to resist the Trump administration’s demands in April — also expressed a desire for facilitated conversations between University leadership and the Penn community.
“I would hope that the President and leadership and Board of Trustees would actually have a meeting with the full Faculty Senate, with the Academic Senate, and with representatives of postdocs and graduate students, and student representatives before Oct. 20,” Liu said.
“I have never seen a greater threat to the University, to all of our departments … and I hope [University leadership will] say no,” she said. “I hope they … will see the threat and stand up against it.”
