Universities Push Back as Trump Tries to Tie Funding to Ideological Loyalty

The University of Arizona has become the seventh major U.S. institution to turn down President Donald Trump’s new higher education initiative, a deal offering preferential access to federal funding in exchange for signing the “Compact for Academic Excellence.”

In a statement on Monday, the Tucson-based university said it refused to sign the agreement “out of commitment to academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence.” It added that while “some of the recommendations deserve thoughtful consideration,” many of them were already part of its policies.

The move puts Arizona alongside Brown, MIT, USC, UPenn, UVA, and Dartmouth, all of which rejected the compact before Monday’s White House deadline. Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas at Austin have not yet announced their decisions, though Vanderbilt’s Chancellor Daniel Diermeier confirmed “ongoing dialogue” with the administration.

The compact, pushed aggressively by Trump’s education team, would have required universities to cap international student enrollment at 15 percent, eliminate consideration of race or sex in admissions and hiring, and ensure that “no dominant political ideology” exists on campus, including by shutting down departments accused of “belittling conservative ideas.”

Critics see the proposal as political coercion dressed up as reform. The American Federation of Teachers called it “favouritism, patronage, and bribery in exchange for allegiance to a partisan ideological agenda.”

Since his return to office in January 2025, Trump has repeatedly tied university funding to ideological loyalty, slashing billions from federal research budgets and targeting schools over pro-Palestinian protests and diversity programmes.

In September, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s cancellation of $2.2bn in Harvard research grants was illegal, calling it “a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”

Trump has also singled out Columbia University and others for allegedly fostering “anti-Semitism” amid Gaza war protests, accusations student activists reject as political spin.