From Inside Higher Ed: On Sunday, President Trump told his 10 million followers on Truth Social that, “tragically,” higher education in this country has lost its way, and he touted his administration’s efforts to fix it... Then he laid out the stark choice he believes America’s colleges and universities must make. They can “continue to illegally discriminate based on Race or Sex,” he wrote. Or, those that prefer to “return to the pursuit of Truth and Achievement” are “invited to enter into a forward looking Agreement with the Federal Government to help bring about the Golden Age of Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
The post came a few days after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology publicly declined to sign on to the administration’s 10-page compact, which was sent to nine universities earlier this month and spurred widespread condemnation. Under the agreement, institutions would have to make sweeping changes or risk their federal funding. The other eight universities have until Oct. 20 to send feedback.
Trump’s open invitation to colleges to sign on to the document did not come as a surprise. Several experts predicted such a development, and a White House official told Inside Higher Ed last week that other institutions had already reached out. However, the timing of Trump’s post raised some eyebrows. “The administration is reading the writing on the wall that they wouldn’t be able to run the table on the nine and that there would be substantial pushback,” said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education. “And they didn’t want to own that, so they looked for more buyers.” ...
Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/2025/10/15/trump-opens-compact-all-higher-ed-now-what.
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