Early in the month, the White House asked nine US universities, including the University of Virginia, to sign an agreement to uphold certain Trump administration priorities regarding higher education in exchange for preferential access to federal funding. The agreement, titled “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” includes demands such as a ban on using race or sex as factors in admission, a cap on the percentage of foreign students, and a five-year freeze on effective tuition rates.
On October 7th, interim president Paul Mahoney and Board of Visitors Rector Rachel Sheridan sent a message to the entire UVA community regarding the agreement via email. The message states that the Compact “raises questions of profound importance to the University of Virginia and more broadly to all institutions of higher education in the United States.” According to the email, President Mahoney has formed a group to study the document and the issues raised within, and advise him while formulating a response. It continues, “It would be difficult for the University to agree to certain provisions in the Compact. We write to assure you that our response will be guided by the same principles of academic freedom and free inquiry that Thomas Jefferson placed at the center of the University’s mission more than 200 years ago, and to which the University has remained faithful ever since.” The email concludes with a link to a secure survey accessible only to those with UVA email addresses, which asks whether there are certain aspects of the Compact that the respondent supports or opposes, and why.
The same day, UVA’s Student Council sent a more concerned message to the student body regarding the Compact. “While the Compact contains elements that appear to have a positive impact on UVA,” begins the email’s first body paragraph, “it also contains several concerning requests.” Student Council argued that the Compact would “fundamentally alter the mission of higher education” due to its goals to, for example, “restrict how universities can engage with political and social issues, create barriers to international student enrollment, define gender and sex in strictly biological terms, and require an administrative commitment to using ‘lawful force’ to address violations of ‘civility.’”
The message from the Student Council also cited the Compact’s enforcement clause, which would allow the Department of Justice to regularly review UVA’s adherence to the agreement, as an enabling of further federal overreach upon the University. Student Council also affirmed that they are “closely monitoring the situation and meeting with the administration as well as the student governments of other universities in the meantime,” and asked for student input about the situation.
The list of demands in the Compact includes:
1: “Equality in Admissions,” including an admissions process blind to “sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations,” or any proxies to those categories, as well as requiring standardized testing (SAT, ACT, etc.) as part of the admissions process, and transparency in admission criteria and statistics. The Compact includes exceptions for the admissions processes of religious-based and single-sex institutions.
2. A university commitment to maintaining a “Marketplace of Ideas & Civil Discourse,” including adoption of “a policy protecting academic freedom,” and “revising governance structures as necessary” to preserve “a broad spectrum of ideological viewpoints.” This includes “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.” A section on “civility” also makes universities responsible to use “lawful force if necessary” to shut down protests that disrupt classes, “heckle or accost” groups of students, or block “access to parts of campus based on students’ race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.”
3. “Nondiscrimination in Faculty and Administrative Hiring,” based on “sex, ethnicity, race, national origin, disability, or religion,” except as provided by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or other federal discrimination statutes.
4. “Institutional Neutrality,” meaning a policy preventing university employees, in their capacity as spokespeople for the university, from making statements on social or political events. UVA adopted a policy of institutional neutrality in the fall of 2024. This section notes that “All university members, including students, faculty, and staff, are encouraged to comment on current events in their individual capacities, provided they do not purport to do so on behalf of the university or any of its sub-divisions.”
5. A commitment to “grade integrity and the use of defensible standards for whether students are achieving their goals,” including a refrain from grade inflation or deflation. The Compact requests that universities use “public accountability mechanisms,” such as publishing grade distribution data, explanations of student outcomes and unusual trends, and comparisons with other schools.
6. A commitment to “student equality,” with “due exceptions for sex-based privacy, safety, and fairness,” including requiring single sex bathrooms and locker rooms, and defining “male,” “female,” “woman,” and “man,” “according to reproductive function and biological processes.”
7. Certain financial policies, including a freeze of effective tuition rates of American students for the next five years, publication of average income of graduates of each academic program, tuition refunds to students who drop out during their first academic term, acceptance of full transfer credits from the Joint Service Transcript of military service members, and a requirement that all universities with endowments exceeding $2 million per student not charge tuition for students pursuing hard science programs.
8. A cap on foreign students at 15% of the student body, and 5% from any one country, selected “on the basis of demonstrably extraordinary talent, rather than on the basis of financial advantage to the university.” This section also includes commitments to “screen out students who demonstrate hostility to the United States, its allies, or its values; and to provide instruction in American civics to all foreign students.” Universities would also be required to share all information about foreign students, including disciplinary records, with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State. Finally, universities would be required to disclose all funding from foreign individuals or institutions, and recommit to compliance with anti-money laundering laws already on the books.
The letter sent to UVA and other institutions is signed by May Mailman, a senior adviser for special projects at the White House, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, and Vince Haley, Director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council. According to the letter, the White House is looking to have it signed and returned by November 21, 2025.
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