On the afternoon of October 17, Chancellor Andrew Martin joined seven universities in a meeting with White House officials to discuss Trump’s higher education compact. It demands that universities enact numerous unprecedented and harmful policies in exchange for federal favor and increased funding.

Notably, WashU was invited to the meeting after numerous universities, including MIT, UPenn, Brown University, and more, rejected the proposal, seeking to maintain independence in establishing university policies, causing the Trump administration to invite a second round of universities.

Trump’s Demands

In exchange for “preferential access to federal funding,” [1], the proposal calls on universities to implement a number of harmful policies, including: 

• Roll back DEI efforts [2]
• Pledge "Institutional Neutrality", requiring abstention from most “actions or speech relating to societal and political events” [2]
• Commit to defining gender “according to reproductive function and biological processes” [2]
• Restrict students’ right to protest and allow “lawful force if necessary” to stop student protests [2]
• Monitor the speech of international students and cap international undergraduate admission at 15% [2]

The compact letter would result in sweeping changes to university policies that attack the enrollment, mental well-being, financial accessibility, and academic exploration of WashU students. In the words of WashU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, 

 “We can only interpret this as a thinly veiled attempt to restrict academic freedom to those who agree with the current government, defeating the very purpose of academic freedom and of higher education as a whole.” 

There is no guarantee that signing Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" will result in increased funding for WashU; however, if WashU signs this compact, they will almost certainly open themselves to further government control. At this pivotal moment in history, WashU must protect academic freedom and civil rights of their faculty & students.

We, the undersigned, call on WashU to firmly refuse to negotiate or comply with these demands.