Representative Greg Stanton has urged the University of Arizona to reject a Trump administration proposal that would offer priority federal funding in exchange for signing onto a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education."
In a letter sent to UA President Suresh Garimella, Greg Stanton called the White House initiative "an unprecedented intrusion into higher education" and warned it could undermine the university's independence.
The Proposal
In September, the White House invited nine universities, including UA, MIT, Vanderbilt, and USC, to sign an agreement offering preferential access to federal grants and White House engagement.
The compact requires participating schools to ban employees from speaking on politics as university representatives, freeze tuition for American students for five years, and accept federal requirements on admissions, hiring, teaching, and research.
Reports indicate that refusing won't result in losing all federal funding but will lose priority status. Those who sign and later withdraw could be required to repay federal and private funds.
Stanton's Concerns
In his letter, Stanton emphasized the compact as a test of whether American public universities can maintain their independence from political pressure.
"The University of Arizona was not chosen by accident," Stanton wrote. "Its stature makes it the perfect test. If it signs, the precedent is set: even top public universities can be bent to political will."
Stanton compared the approach to strategies used internationally to bring universities under government control, citing a March New York Times editorial that noted authoritarian leaders often target academic institutions because "empirical truth can present a threat to their authority."
"By dictating who universities admit and hire, what they teach, and even how they conduct research, Trump aims to strip higher education of its independence," Stanton argued.
He then emphasized that UA's decision carries implications that extend beyond a single institution.
"At stake is the University of Arizona's independence, the academic freedom of its faculty and students, and the democratic role of higher education itself," he wrote.
The University of Arizona has not yet announced its decision regarding the compact.
