White House Ties Research Funds to 9 Universities' Compact

The White House sent letters and a 10-point “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” to nine major public and private universities, tying preferential access to federal research funds to compliance with the plan. The compact would ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions, impose a five-year tuition freeze, cap international undergraduate enrollment at 15%, require SAT (or similar) testing, mandate measures to curb grade inflation, and restrict employees from speaking on behalf of their institutions. Officials including May Mailman and, according to reporting, Linda McMahon and Domestic Policy Council director Vince Haley said schools that sign would receive “multiple positive benefits,” including “substantial and meaningful federal grants.” The administration framed the compact as a way to raise academic standards and steady costs, while critics and some observers described it as a MAGA-driven loyalty test coming after an aggressive campaign of funding cuts, frozen funds and legal pressure on universities. The memo says institutions may decline the terms but would forfeit the federal benefits, raising concerns about politicization of funding and threats to academic freedom.