The White House has laid out a proposal to nine top U.S. colleges and universities offering preferential access to federal funds in exchange for agreeing to a set of demands.
In a memo delivered this week and sent to NBC News by a White House official, the Trump administration asked schools, including several Ivy League institutions, to agree to parameters such as barring transgender people from using restrooms or playing in sports that align with their gender identities and capping international undergraduate student enrollment, among other conditions.
In addition, signers would be required to freeze tuition rates charged to American students for the next five years.
Schools that adopt the agreement are promised a number of benefits, including priority treatment for grants.
“By signing the compact, universities receive a competitive advantage,” a White House official said in a statement about the memo. “The Administration does not plan to limit federal funding solely to schools that sign the compact, but they would be given priority for grants when possible as well as invitations for White House events and discussions with officials.”
The nine recipients of the memo were Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia.
Among the requirements in the document, titled “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” the administration requires a ban on considering race, sex or gender identity in admissions and financial support. It also calls for banning considering those factors in faculty hiring.
Schools that sign on to the agreement would also be prohibited from having any more than 15% of the undergraduate population be international students, the memo said. There is also a requirement for the universities to prioritize merit and share “all known information” about international students upon request to the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.
“Signatories pledge to select those foreign students on the basis of demonstrably extraordinary talent, rather than on the basis of financial advantage to the university; to screen out students who demonstrate hostility to the United States, its allies, or its values; and to provide instruction in American civics to all foreign students,” the memo said.
The schools are also asked to eradicate any campus institutions that might “punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
Schools that sign on to the agreement but then violate the terms would lose preferential treatment for at least a year, and any funding the government provided to the schools during the year of violation would have to be returned. Private contributions would also be returned at the grantors’ request.
In response to the news, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said any school that signs the agreement would lose state funding. He wrote on X, in all capital letters: “California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom.”
Kevin Eltife, chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, said it is "honored that our flagship — The University of Texas at Austin — has been named as one of only nine institutions" selected.
"We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately," Eltife said in a statement.
The University of Virginia said in a statement that it has not yet made a decision about the compact. It noted that its interim president, Paul Mahoney, "has publicly advocated for UVA to be a leader in free and open debate, viewpoint diversity, academic freedom, and affordability."
News of the memo comes after months of clashes between the Trump administration and a number of universities over federal funding, accusations of antisemitism related to campus protests around the war in Gaza and concepts of ideological diversity.
In its ongoing back-and-forth with Harvard University, the government recently moved to “debar” the school, potentially excluding it from accessing billions in federal funds. If the administration gets its way, Harvard would be deemed not responsible enough to do business with the government “because of its wrongdoing,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a news release.
Columbia and Brown universities have made deals with the administration to restore federal funding that had been frozen.
Columbia agreed to pay $200 million and to establish a “jointly selected independent monitor.” The monitor is expected to provide reports about the school’s compliance with federal laws and regulations related to admissions, hiring and international students.
Meanwhile, Brown will pay $50 million in grants over 10 years to workforce development organizations in Rhode Island, where it is located.
