The University of California Faculty Association urged UC system leaders to reject President Donald Trump’s administration’s request for universities to publish statements outlining reforms to admissions, faculty hiring and campus speech, including plans to encourage “intellectual pluralism.”
UCFA said the Department of Education letter “does nothing to secure academic freedom” in a statement.
In an Oct. 8 letter to UC President James Milliken and the UC Board of Regents, UCFA opposed federal political tests for faculty hiring, teaching or research, writing that the Education Department’s letter is “one more attempt by the Trump administration to exert undue political influence over institutions of higher education.”
The UC Office of the President confirmed it is reviewing UCFA’s letter but did not say whether the UC system plans to respond to the federal proposal.
“As President Milliken has made clear, the University remains focused on preserving academic freedom and shared governance,” UCOP spokesperson Rachel Zaentz said in an email.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s Aug. 3 National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards asks universities to publish statements outlining their existing and planned reforms before the end of 2026.
McMahon presented the request as an effort to restore public trust in national higher education. She alleged that some academic departments have put political goals over scholarship and asked how universities would consider different viewpoints when hiring and evaluating faculty.
The Department of Education letter also asks universities to address college affordability, admissions transparency and alleged foreign influence. The letter calls for stronger free speech standards to prevent protesters from disrupting campus activities. The UC system already has time, place and manner policies regulating speech and protests from disrupting campus operations.
UCFA said the Education Department should enforce existing laws instead of dictating universities’ academic policies.
UCFA calls the proposal “Compact 2.0,” referring to a 2025 Trump administration plan that offered universities preferential treatment and access to federal funding in exchange for signing an agreement to change their academic policies.
Unlike the earlier compact, McMahon’s August proposal asks universities to publish statements rather than sign an agreement. UCFA urged university leaders not to respond, warning that doing so could legitimize the administration’s political agenda.
“If colleges and universities are to truly serve the public good,” UCFA said in the open letter, “they should not be made answerable to the political program of a particular administration.”