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The University of Virginia announced Friday that it rejected a proposal from President Donald Trump's administration. The "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education," if signed, would require schools to adhere to a set of standards laid out by the White House in order to continue receiving federal funding.
In his letter to the US Department of Education, interim University President Paul Mahoney wrote:
"We wholeheartedly agree that 'American higher education is the envy of the world.' We also agree with many of the principles outlined in the Compact, including a fair and unbiased admissions process, an affordable and academically rigorous education, a thriving marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and equal treatment of students, faculty, and staff in all aspects of university operations. Indeed, the University of Virginia leads in several of these areas and is committed to continuous improvement in all of them.
We seek no special treatment in exchange for our pursuit of those foundational goals. The integrity of science and other academic work requires merit-based assessment of research and scholarship. A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education.
Higher education faces significant challenges and has not always lived up to its highest ideals. We believe that the best path toward real and durable progress lies in an open and collaborative conversation. We look forward to working together to develop alternative, lasting approaches to improving higher education."
UVA joins Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Universities of Pennsylvania and Southern California in rejecting the compact.
US Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent the compact on Oct. 1 to UVA and eight other schools: Brown University, Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vanderbilt University, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California and the University of Texas at Austin.
Its conditions include:
- removing all factors such as race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity — "or proxies for any of those factors" — from admission decisions, leaving only "objective criteria published on the University's website"
- "revising governance structures as necessary" to foster a "vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus," including "transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas"
- requiring that all employees acting in their capacity as university representatives "abstain from actions or speech relating to societal and political events except in cases in which external events have a direct impact on the university"
- committing to strict interpretations of gender based on biological sex
- sharply limiting international admissions, both overall and from any one country
Mahoney also addressed the UVA community in a letter that confirms the school's "core values and commitments while expressing our view that federal research funding should be based on merit."
In it, he also thanked the Faculty Senate, Staff Senate, Student Council and other community members who expressed their opinions on the compact, adding that it was the "thoughtful feedback" that showed a "profound care for the University and a strong commitment to its future."
He continued, "We will continue to work to strengthen free expression and free inquiry, protect academic freedom, ensure affordability, promote intellectual pluralism, and maintain institutional neutrality in an increasingly polarized world. I am grateful for your continued dedication to the University and I look forward to working with you on these vital projects."
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