U.Va. faculty call for no deal with Trump administration

Updated Oct. 8

University of Virginia faculty members have taken action in recent days to voice their opposition to the deal offered by the federal government to commit to President Donald Trump‘s political priorities in exchange for improved access to federal money.

U.Va. was among nine major universities encouraged to sign on to a compact that would grant them more favorable access to federal funding — as long as the universities accepted Trump’s priorities on admissions, women’s sports, free speech, student discipline and college affordability. The document, dubbed the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” comes after the Trump administration threatened to pull funding from universities that it views as opposing its priorities.

The universities were given a deadline of Oct. 20 to decide whether to enter into the agreement.

In June, former U.Va. President Jim Ryan resigned while the university was under investigation by the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, and he said in a statement that he was doing so in order to help U.Va. preserve federal funds that support research projects and jobs, as well as student financial aid.

Paul G. Mahoney, a former dean of the U.Va. School of Law and a longtime faculty member, was named in August as the university’s interim president.

Virginia State Senate Democratic leaders Scott Surovell, Louise Lucas and Mamie Locke sent a letter Tuesday to Mahoney and Rector Rachel Sheridan expressing concern about the compact and their “unequivocal opposition” to it, adding that if the university signs the agreement, “there will be significant consequences in future Virginia budget cycles.

“As the leadership of the Senate with responsibility for appropriations affecting higher education, we will work with our colleagues to ensure that the commonwealth does not subsidize an institution that has ceded its independence to political control,” the letter said. “We expect the university to immediately cease all deliberations regarding this compact and to promptly notify the Trump administration in writing that the University of Virginia will not consider signing this agreement.”

The 10-page proposed agreement from the U.S. Department of Education was sent last week to some of the nation’s most selective public and private universities: Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University, and U.Va. It was not stated how or why the schools were selected for the compact.

On Oct. 3, 60 of the U.Va. Faculty Senate’s 66 members voted to oppose the compact, issuing a resolution that says the federal agreement “contains provisions antithetical to the mission and traditions of the university” and “likely violates state and federal law, and infringes upon the constitutional rights of members of the university community.”

Faculty members in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences on Monday overwhelmingly voted in favor of supporting a statement by the college’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Ethics, which called the compact’s existence “a threat to the values of academic freedom to which we are all committed.

“We ask that the interim president, the rector and board of visitors refuse to discuss joining the compact offered by the federal government,” the group’s statement said.

According to an Oct. 5 Cavalier Daily story, Mahoney spoke at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday, saying he had formed a working group to address the U.S. Department of Education’s offer. He was met with questions and challenges about whether the compact violates the First Amendment and discriminates against transgender individuals by requiring institutions to define male, female, woman and man “according to reproductive function and biological processes.”

Mahoney and Sheridan sent a message to the university Monday about the compact, noting that Mahoney had formed a working group to examine the document and advise him on U.Va.’s response.

“The Board of Visitors has confidence in that process and looks forward to working with President Mahoney to address this critical juncture in the relationship between the federal government and American universities,” the email says, adding that community members are invited to give input at a link available only to faculty, staff, students and others affiliated with U.Va. “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 Democratic senators’ letter went on to discuss Ryan’s resignation and the Trump administration’s actions regarding academic funding.

“This latest federal overture must be viewed in the context of the Trump administration’s recent and unprecedented interference in university operations,” the senators wrote. “President Ryan, who had led the university to record fundraising success and navigated it through extraordinary challenges, was sacrificed to federal political pressure.”

The letter goes on to argue that the Trump administration “now seeks to formalize its control through this compact. The pattern is clear: capitulation invites further interference, not protection.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.