Another university declines Trump’s offer for priority funding

Amna Nawaz:

A number of colleges and universities are pushing back on pressure from the Trump administration.

Earlier this month, the president offered nine schools priority access to federal funding if they signed a deal called the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. It includes demands like eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion policies, prohibiting anything that would — quote — "punish, belittle, or even spark violence against conservative ideas," shrinking foreign student enrollment, and freezing effective tuition rates for five years.

But, so far, the University of Arizona, USC, Brown University, Penn, Dartmouth College, MIT, and the University of Virginia have all rejected the deal. The University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt University haven't yet publicly weighed in.

For a closer look, I'm joined now by Ted Mitchell. He's president of the American Council on Education. That's a nonprofit U.S. higher education association.

Ted Mitchell, welcome to the "News Hour." Thanks for joining us.

Ted Mitchell, President, American Council on Education: Thanks for having me.

Amna Nawaz:

Let's just begin with your reaction to the Trump administration's decision to send out this letter. What did you make of it and the terms that it entailed when you saw it?

Ted Mitchell:

Yes, many of us were very appalled by the letter in a couple of ways.

First, it's a major intrusion into the decision-making of higher education institutions. Fundamental to that are who we teach, who teaches, what we teach and all of those were a part of the Trump deal. Essentially, universities were asked to cede responsibility for those to the federal government in exchange for an odd on federal grants, which is the second problem, is that federal grants should always be given on the basis of merit, not on the basis of political ideology or on the basis of agreeing with a government, whether it's a Democrat government or a Republican government.

Amna Nawaz:

So, by the sound of it, it's not like you would actually advise any of these schools to sign it. Is that what I'm hearing?

Ted Mitchell:

I think it's a terrible idea for the institution, and I think it's a terrible idea for American higher education.

Amna Nawaz:

So, in terms of what we're seeing right now, we should remind folks, this has been part of a broader pressure campaign by the Trump administration. We know they launched over 100 investigations into K-12 schools and higher education universities.

But, so far, we have seen some universities agree, for example, to change their leadership. Or we have seen settlements, for example, from universities like Brown and Columbia and UPenn, reportedly one in the works with the University of Virginia as well.

The fact that schools are now rejecting this letter, does that say to you there's been some shift in the landscape?

Ted Mitchell:

No, I think that there's just been a clearer recognition among institutions of where the bright red lines are, lines that a federal government shouldn't cross, lines that actually would make institutions instruments of the state, rather than institutions seeking truth, seeking innovation, academic discoveries.

All of that's at risk here if institutions become simply instruments of state policy, again, whether that's a Democrat policy or a Republican policy.

Amna Nawaz:

Are there any parts of the letter that stand out to you as points on which the schools should negotiate or should consider? I'm thinking specifically about the tuition freeze. The demands in this letter say the signatories have to commit to freezing tuition rates for U.S. students for the next five years.

That feels like something a lot of people can get behind regardless of their politics.

Ted Mitchell:

Yes, as the father of a couple of recent college graduates, I get it.

I think that the word that's important and that is negotiate with the government. I don't think that these are matters to negotiate with the government about. Is affordability an issue? Absolutely, it's an issue. Should we do everything we can to constrain prices and cost? Absolutely.

And I think the deal that the government has presented is about having the government dictate that. And we think that that's wrong. And I think our colleagues across the country agree with us. Now, there are a number of things that are pointed out in the compact that are things that we have been working on for years.

We have been clearly working on trying to create ideological diversity in the faculty. I think it's wrong to point out the protection of just conservative views. I think all views need to be protected. I think cancel culture is wrong whether it comes from the left or the right. That's something we take seriously.

But things like capping international student enrollment, I think that goes too far. Demanding that institutions use a standardized test to make all of their admissions decisions, I think that that runs into all that we know about the inequality of K-12 education in this country.

So I think there are plenty of things in the compact that we need to work on together, but we need to do it in partnership, not with a deal.

Amna Nawaz:

Can I ask you about that foreign enrollment cap, though? Because they're proposing a 15 percent cap as a percentage of the student body. The argument there, as I'm sure you have heard, is that are fewer foreign students, that they would admit more U.S. students. Is that a wrong assumption?

Ted Mitchell:

It is because one forgets in that assumption that the international students, in addition to providing great diversity of opinion and background on our campuses, they often pay, most often, most often pay full tuition. So in fact, international students subsidize low-income domestic students.

Amna Nawaz:

So, on the issue of whether or not schools should sign this, so far, we have seen rejections. Do you worry what will happen if one school does decide to sign on? Does that create more pressure for other schools to follow?

Ted Mitchell:

I don't think so.

I think that every institution is going to take a look at this, as they should, given their own context and their own needs. But I do believe that institutions are voicing their concern with this idea of, well, this federal overreach that has clearly crossed some lines for all of us.

Amna Nawaz:

All right, that is Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, joining us tonight.

Ted Mitchell, thank you for your time.

Ted Mitchell:

Thank you.