Universities join Penn in rejecting White House compact as consequences for refusal remain unclear

In the days following Penn’s rejection of the federal government’s preferential funding compact, the majority of other universities that were offered the deal have followed suit.

Two days after the Oct. 20 deadline to provide initial feedback, seven of the nine universities initially asked to sign the White House’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” have rejected the proposal. The rejections come as the White House sends mixed signals about the consequences of refusing to sign.

White House spokesperson Liz Huston told The Daily Pennsylvanian last week that “any higher education institution unwilling to assume accountability and confront these overdue and necessary reforms will find itself without future government and taxpayers support.”

In a conflicting statement, a White House official told The Washington Post that universities will not lose their federal funding if they decide not to engage with the compact.

Penn became the third university to reject the agreement on Oct. 16, following the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s rejection on Oct. 10 and Brown University’s on Oct. 15. Following Penn’s refusal, three additional schools — Dartmouth College, the University of Virginia, and the University of Arizona — also declined. 

Only the University of Texas at Austin has indicated receptivity to the proposal, while Vanderbilt University said it would continue providing feedback rather than issue an outright acceptance or rejection.

The rejections from Dartmouth and the University of Virginia came after an Oct. 17 meeting where university leaders who had not yet made a decision discussed the proposal with senior White House officials. Wharton School Board of Advisors Chair and 1984 Wharton graduate Marc Rowan — who was a chief architect of the compact — also participated in the Friday call.

The call also included representatives from three additional schools newly invited to sign onto the compact: Arizona State University, the University of Kansas, and Washington University in St. Louis.

Rowan’s participation drew renewed attention to his ongoing influence at Penn, where he continues to serve as chair of Wharton’s advisory board. 

The compact closely mirrors reform questions Rowan circulated to Penn’s Board of Trustees in December 2023 after leading the campaign to oust former Penn President Liz Magill and former Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok. 

According to The New York Times, Rowan — who recently made a $10 million donation to the Wharton school — insisted that the compact be sent to Penn.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon described the Friday meeting as “a positive and wide-ranging conversation” in a post on social media. She wrote that the administration looks forward to “continued discussion” and called for “renewed commitment to the time-honored principles that helped make American universities great.”

In Dartmouth’s announcement rejecting the compact, Dartmouth President Sian Beilock referenced the stance she took during the meeting.

“As I shared on a call yesterday with the White House, I do not believe that a compact — with any administration — is the right approach to achieve academic excellence, as it would compromise our academic freedom, our ability to govern ourselves, and the principle that federal research funds should be awarded to the best, most promising ideas,” she said in an Oct. 18 statement.

The University of Arizona became the seventh school not to sign the compact on Monday. 

President Suresh Garimella wrote that “principles like academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence are foundational and must be preserved,” white noting that some of the White House’s ideas “deserve thoughtful consideration.” 

Garimella additionally sent McMahon the “University of Arizona’s Statement of Principles,” which outlines several provisions in the compact that the university already abides by. 

Despite rejecting the compact, UVA is reportedly in talks to cut a separate deal with the Trump administration that would end a prolonged standoff that led to the resignation of the school’s president in June, according to The New York Times. Five people briefed on the matter confirmed that the White House was reviewing the terms of the deal on Tuesday.

The settlement would mark the first time a public university has cut a significant deal with the Trump administration, following similar agreements with private institutions including Brown, Columbia, and Penn. 

In return, the Department of Justice would suspend federal investigations into the university, but reserve the right to resume those inquiries if the administration deemed the school was not making sufficient progress on its civil rights goals. 

The university would “not pay a financial penalty nor submit to a direct monitoring arrangement,” according to the Times. 

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