A proposal from the Trump administration that outlined guidelines to adhere to in exchange for preferential access to federal funding was turned down by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, wrote to US Education Secretary Linda McMahon, claiming that the proposal was incompatible with the university’s basic principles and would “restrict freedom of expression” on campus.
The administration also sought the University of Texas, the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University to sign the agreement. Universities would be forced to accept a binary definition of gender, limit the comments made by academic leaders on political events, and cap international admissions.
A “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” was proposed by the US Department of Education, and it required the institutions to examine and approve it. It included a long list of conservative complaints about which the administration has had disagreements with a number of other universities.
It requested that institutions “commit to using lawful force if necessary” to quell and stop protests on campus and use standardized examinations for the majority of admissions. Additionally, the schools would pledge to foster an atmosphere that would allow conservative viewpoints to be freely expressed.
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