{"id":5157,"date":"2025-10-17T03:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T03:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/5157\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T03:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T03:23:16","slug":"university-of-pennsylvania-rejects-trumps-higher-education-compact-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/5157\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Pennsylvania rejects Trump\u2019s higher education compact"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published on Higher Ed Dive<\/a>. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Higher Ed Dive newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The University of Pennsylvania on Thursday became the third institution to publicly reject the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping higher education compact that promises priority for federal research funding in exchange for policy changes.<\/p>\n

In an online message<\/a>, Penn President J. Larry Jameson said he informed the U.S. Department of Education that the university \u201crespectfully declines\u201d to sign the compact.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability. The long-standing partnership between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jameson also provided the agency feedback, as requested by the Trump administration, \u201chighlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns.\u201d But he did not expand on why the university rejected the compact in his message. Penn did not provide more information about the concerns he mentioned in responding to a request for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Ivy League institution follows the Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/a> and Brown University<\/a> in rejecting the administration’s offer. Those institutions raised concerns that the proposed compact would infringe on their independence and freedom.<\/p>\n

The compact\u2019s wide-ranging terms<\/a> include freezing tuition for five years, placing caps on international enrollment, changing or eliminating campus units that \u201cpurposefully punish\u201d and \u201cbelittle\u201d conservative viewpoints, and requiring undergraduate applicants to take standardized tests.<\/p>\n

Although federal officials initially invited nine high-profile institutions to sign the compact, President Donald Trump appeared to extend that invitation to all colleges in a recent social media post. Neither the White House nor the U.S. Education Department immediately responded to a request for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro praised Penn’s move<\/a> in a statement Thursday, saying the university \u201cmade the right decision to maintain its full academic independence and integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump Administration\u2019s dangerous demands would limit freedom of speech, the freedom to learn, and the freedom to engage in constructive debate and dialogue on campuses across the country,\u201d Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

As governor, Shapiro is a nonvoting member of Penn\u2019s board, but he has wielded that influence<\/a> at the private university as few of his predecessors have, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.<\/p>\n

He said Thursday that he had \u201cengaged closely with university leaders” on the Trump administration’s compact.<\/p>\n

Shapiro isn\u2019t the only Democratic lawmaker in Pennsylvania who has raised concerns about the compact. Two state representatives have also moved to bar colleges<\/a> that receive state funding from signing the proposed agreement.<\/p>\n

Penn\u2019s rejection of the compact comes after the university cut a deal with the Trump administration earlier this year to restore some $175 million<\/a> in suspended research funding. Federal officials had cut off the funding over Penn\u2019s prior policies allowing transgender women to compete in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

Under that deal, struck in July, Penn agreed to adopt the Trump administration\u2019s interpretation of Title IX, the civil rights law barring federally funded institutions from discriminating on the basis of sex.<\/p>\n

The university also agreed to award athletic titles to cisgender women on Penn\u2019s swimming team who had lost to transgender women, according to the Education Department<\/a>. And the university said it would send personal apology letters to affected cisgender women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on Higher Ed Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4784,4783,34,4782,33,28,30,29,4785,4781,4347],"class_list":["post-5157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-administration","tag-brown-university","tag-donald-trump","tag-j-larry-jameson","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-research-funding","tag-u-s-department-of-education","tag-university-of-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}