In an unprecedented move, the Trump administration has offered nine elite American universities a transactional deal: promote conservative views on your campuses, and you will be rewarded with significant federal grants. This “Compact for Academic Excellence” lays out a 10-point agenda that universities must adopt to secure funding, a proposal that has triggered widespread alarm over the future of free speech and academic independence.
The universities targeted, a list that includes Dartmouth College, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Southern California, are being asked to actively enhance the profile of conservative voices. The compact goes further, demanding the dismantling of academic departments that are judged to “punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.” This effectively calls for a politically motivated restructuring of university curricula and faculty.
The choice presented to these institutions is stark. If they sign the compact, they are promised “multiple positive benefits,” chief among them a continued flow of federal money. If they refuse, the document implicitly threatens a total cutoff, stating that universities are free to pursue other values only if they renounce all federal funding streams. This places immense pressure on university leaders to comply.
The proposal has been fiercely condemned as a “hostile takeover” by opponents, who argue it would install a government-mandated ideology on campus. California Governor Gavin Newsom has threatened to pull state funding from any California university that accepts the “radical agreement,” creating a potential financial pincer for schools like USC. Academics and civil liberties advocates have labeled the plan “horrifying,” viewing it as a direct government effort to control thought.
The White House has framed this as an effort to combat a lack of intellectual diversity and hostility towards conservatism in higher education. However, critics see it as a coercive tactic that uses taxpayer money to enforce political conformity, fundamentally altering the relationship between the U.S. government and the nation’s institutions of higher learning.