Photo: Skyclad Aerial
The University of Virginia received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education October 1, calling on the school to sign an agreement in exchange for increased access to federal funds. The letter, and attached “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” was sent to nine universities, which, in addition to UVA, included Brown, Dartmouth, MIT, Vanderbilt, and the University of Pennsylvania.
By signing, the letter claims schools will “signal to students, parents, and contributors that learning and equality are university priorities,” and assure the federal government they are “complying with civil rights law and pursuing Federal priorities with vigor.” The letter then lists potential benefits, including “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships.”
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, White House Senior Policy Strategist May Mailman, and White House Domestic Policy Council Director Vince Haley are listed as signatories on the letter, which was addressed to UVA interim President Paul Mahoney.
The document opens by detailing the financial benefits received by higher education institutions—access to student loans, grant programs, and federal contracts; research funding; visas; and preferential tax code treatment. It concludes that schools “are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forgo federal benefits.”
Consideration of identity in admissions and hiring is explicitly barred, with exceptions for religious institutions, single-sex institutions, and for any school with a preference for American students. Other ideals listed in the agreement include promotion of a “marketplace of ideas and civil discourse” and “institutional neutrality,” and commitments to no inflation or deflation in grading and a five-year effective tuition rate freeze.
While the headlines of the document are relatively neutral, a closer inspection of the compact’s language reveals several ideologically charged items. Under the subhead of “student equality,” the document requires universities to define “‘male,’ ‘female,’ ‘woman,’ and ‘man’ according to reproductive function and biological function.” The same section further states that “immutable characteristics, particularly race” cannot be the basis for unequal access to “buildings, spaces, scholarships, programming, and other university resources.”
At the October 3 faculty senate meeting, UVA professors slammed the agreement and passed a resolution calling on Mahoney and the Board of Visitors to “reject this compact outright as well as any similar proposal compromising the mission, values, and independence of the university” by a vote of 60-2, with four abstentions.
According to an October 6 statement from Mahoney and Rector Rachel Sheridan, a working group has been formed to assemble the university’s response, and a form for community input has been created. “It would be difficult for the University to agree to certain provisions in the Compact,” reads an excerpt from the joint message. “We write to assure you that our response will be guided by the same principles of academic freedom and free inquiry that Thomas Jefferson placed at the center of the University’s mission more than 200 years ago, and to which the University has remained faithful ever since.”
UVA has not given a timeline for its response. The DOE letter invited “limited, targeted feedback” from universities by October 20, and stated the agreement should be signed by November 21.
