Two institutions used the same phrase to reject the compact’s promise of preferential status in exchange for signing.

Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | peterspiro/iStock/Getty Images

Multiple universities have rejected President Trump’s proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education , but they have taken different approaches to turning down the commander in chief. Some have declined pointedly, while others struck a more delicate balancing act.

To be sure, leaders of the institutions invited to sign the compact have found themselves squeezed by both internal and external forces, under pressure from the federal government to approve the deal and from faculty and other campus constituents to reject it. Both public and private universities have also fa

See Full Page