A view through the John Nicholas Brown gate at Brown University.

PROVIDENCE – Brown University President Christina H. Paxson has rejected the Trump administration's proposed "compact" tying preferential access to federal funds to, as she described it, the forfeiture of academic freedom.

In a letter to the White House made public on Wednesday, Oct. 15, she formally "declined the invitation for Brown to join the White House’s proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education."

She said the "Compact by its nature ... would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance, critically compromising our ability to fulfill our mission."

Additionally, she said: "A fundamental part of academic excellence is awarding research funding on the merits of the research being proposed. The cover letter describing the Compact contemplates funding research on criteria other than the soundness and likely impact of research, which would ultimately damage the health and prosperity of Americans.”

Brown was one of nine colleges and universities – including two other Ivies – that originally received what she described as an "invitation" to join the compact.

Paxson shared news of her decision in an Oct. 15 message to the Brown community. She noted that her decision to decline participation in the compact aligns with the views of the vast majority of Brown stakeholders.

At the same time, she said, she "remains dedicated to participating in dialogue anchored in these values” as discussions continue about how to improve American higher education.

What does the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education demand?

Brown was one of nine colleges and universities that originally received the compact, with an Oct. 20 deadline to comment.

In addition to Brown, the institutions approached by the administration include the University of Arizona, Dartmouth College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia.

The "compact" asks schools to pledge allegiance to conservative values and policies in several enumerated areas in order to receive various forms of federal funding.

They would, for example, have to agree not to consider gender or race or political views in admissions and financial aid; prevent university employees from engaging in "political speech"; freeze tuition for five years and cap international enrollment at 15% of a college’s undergraduate student body, with no more than 5% coming from a single country.

Brown is the latest of the nine invitees to say "no thank you," after M.I.T.

Paxon: Brown agrees with some ideas in the compact

In her letter to Trump's Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Paxson said Brown shares the administration's concerns about college affordability.

She also reminded the administration that Brown, on July 30, reached a deal with the Trump Administration to restore $510 million in frozen federal dollars.

In exchange, the university agreed to refrain from "unlawful efforts to achieve race-based outcomes, quotas, diversity targets or similar efforts,” restrict transgender athletes to joining teams based on their assigned sex at birth and contribute $50 million to workforce development training in Rhode Island.

Paxson has described that deal as a "voluntary agreement with the federal government" that "... restored our research funding from the National Institutes of Health and our ability to compete fairly for new grants."

In response to the Trump administration's latest attempt to control what happens at some of the nation's premier universities, she said Brown "understands" and has attempted to address the compact’s focus on the rising costs of education on its own.

“Financial aid has been among the fastest-growing areas of Brown’s budget in the past decade,” she wrote.

“We admit undergraduate students without consideration of their financial circumstances; all financial aid awards are loan-free and based solely on economic need; and we have targeted initiatives serving rural students and veterans."

“We remain committed to the July agreement and its preservation of Brown’s core values in ways that the Compact – in any form – fundamentally would not," she wrote.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Brown University rejects Trump's higher education 'compact'

Reporting by Katherine Gregg, Providence Journal / The Providence Journal

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