President Michael Kotlikoff indicated at a recent New York City press dinner that he will not sign Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”
The Trump compact, among other things, would provide multiple benefits to schools who signed, such as “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal partnerships.”
However, universities would be required to freeze tuition rates for the next five years, combat grade inflation, adopt protections for free speech, and cap foreign enrollment.
One specific tenet of the compact is that “no more than 15 percent of a university’s undergraduate student population” can be international students, and “no more than 5 percent [of undergraduate students] shall be from any one country [other than the United States].”
International students make up approximately 26% of Cornell’s total student population and, about 43% of international students at Cornell are Chinese.
President Kotlikoff also said that the university is continuing discussions with the Trump administration over research funding and compliance with federal anti-discrimination requirements, but emphasized that no agreement has been finalized. He did not address whether those discussions include settlement negotiations aimed at restoring federal funding.
Trump initially offered the compact to nine universities: Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. The President later extended the compact to any university that would like to sign.
As of last Friday, Trump has specifically approached three more universities to be potential signers of this compact. It is not clear how the President chose these universities.
Thus far, six of the universities Trump approached have rejected the offer: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Virginia, and Dartmouth College.
