University of Texas at Austin leaders are staying silent and likely playing it safe on an offer from the Trump administration to allow access to federal money in exchange for agreement with certain stipulations, like a freeze on tuition for five years.
The deadline for UT to sign the deal, known as the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, was Friday November 21st, and it’s unclear whether UT joined other schools in agreeing to the plan, which was proposed just a month ago.
For universities to agree to the pact, they would have to put a limit on the number of international undergraduate students in addition to the tuition freeze.
Many of the universities receiving the offer have declined, but when asked by the publication Inside Higher Ed to turn over “emails, text messages, internal presentations and other documents related to how presidents, trustees and other officials discussed the compact,” the publication has received no response.
As so often happens when records are sought under the US Freedom of Information Act, UT is seeking a ruling from the Texas Attorney General’s Office on whether or how UT is required to comply with the request.
Details of what the compact requires have been gathered on a page at the National Law Review.