Education policy

Seven of the nine universities the White House approached — University of Arizona, Brown, Dartmouth, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, USC and the University of Virginia — have declined to sign the administration’s "Compact for Academic Excellence," leaving the University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt noncommittal. The White House proposed preferential federal grants tied to commitments such as a five‑year tuition freeze, caps on international students and bans on race/sex considerations, but universities rejected the pact as threatening academic freedom, institutional independence and merit‑based research funding.