White House tells universities to sign loyalty pledges for govt funds: Report

The White House has told universities that they would essentially need to sign loyalty pledges to receive government funds, according to Wall Street Journal.

The development has come at a time when the Donald Trump administration has gone after several universities, such as Harvard, and cut their funds. While the administration has accused universities of many violations, critics have said these allegations and cuts are pressure tactics to bring these institutes to their knees.

In a 10-point memo to university leaders, the White House has essentially told them to adopt Maga doctrine, as per The Journal.

If they would not adopt the far-right agenda, they would lose funding, the memo said.

The memo, dubbed the ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’, has told universities they will get “multiple positive benefits”, such as “substantial and meaningful federal grants”. The memo was signed by May Mailman, a senior adviser for special projects at the White House.

In his second term, Trump has launched an unprecedented offensive against universities, such as Universities of Harvard, Columbia, and Brown, among other. While some universities paid hundreds of millions to settle cases, other have contested Trump’s diktats in court. In the meantime, Trump has frozen billion in funds to higher educational institutions.

Trump’s host of demands from universities

In the memo, Trump has told universities to ban the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions and freeze tuition for five years, cap international undergrad admissions at 15 per cent, according to The Journal.

The memo further said that applicants should take the SAT or a similar test for admissions and institutions should quell grade inflation.

The memo told universities to ensure a “vibrant marketplace of ideas on campus” and to bar staffers from expressing political views on behalf of their institutions unless the matter affects the school. The memo said it sought to create a more welcoming environment for conservatives and make governance changes and abolish departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas”.

The only condition wherein universities would be “free to develop models and values other than those” laid down by the White House would be if they would forego government funding, the memo said.

The memo, which seeks to turn campuses into the political sword arm of the Maga movement, has outraged many. Ted Mitchell, the President of the American Council on Education, which represents over 1,500 presidents of colleges and universities, told The Journal that he found the idea of a compact troubling, particularly its points around political expression and views.

“Who decides if the intellectual environment is vigorous and open-ended? This is not something the federal government should be involved in and adjudicating. The implications for free speech are horrifying,” said Mitchell.