Topline
Education Secretary Linda McMahon asked American universities to commit to Trump administration-approved campus reforms by the end of 2026—after a previous attempt to get a group of universities to sign a stricter compact was mostly rejected.
The education secretary did not threaten to withhold federal research funding from universities, but asked them to provide “full transparency” on a number of Trump-administration priorities.
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Key Facts
In an open letter published on Monday, McMahon called on colleges to answer how they would reform several areas the Trump administration’s education department has been prioritizing, insisting “Americans’ trust in universities has reached record lows.”
McMahon’s letter asked universities to post statements committing to the reforms publicly by the end of the year—but did not list any consequences for institutions that fail to meet the deadline and did not tie research funding to responding to the request.
The new push comes eight months after the Trump administration pushed for universities to sign a much stricter “compact” that would have required them to restrict international students, to adhere to conservative definitions of gender and freeze tuition—a proposal that was widely rejected by Democratic elected officials.
What Does The Letter Ask of Universities?
McMahon’s letter asked colleges for answers to seven general areas that roughly line up with some of the administration’s education priorities. These include making admissions criteria “transparent” and ensuring they are “merit-based.” It also called for colleges to promote free speech, but also prevent “unruly and violent protestors.” It slammed certain academic departments for prioritizing “political and social goals” over academics, citing a contentious report commissioned by Vanderbilt University that took issue with “politicized” scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, such as anthropology. In response, it asks universities to encourage “intellectual pluralism” and hire academics with “all relevant perspectives.” The letter also asked colleges to ensure their students are earning “high-return” degrees, fight to reduce grade inflation and protect academic programs from “foreign influence.”
Key Background
The Trump administration previously tried to get a smaller group of elite universities to sign onto a compact promising many of the same reforms last October with much stricter terms and requirements. In the document, the administration asked the group of universities for reforms that included freezing tuition for the next five years and requiring universities with endowments worth more than $2 million to offer free tuition for students pursuing the “hard sciences.” It also asked the group to commit to strict restrictions on international students—capping international enrollment at 15% of the undergraduate population and a limit to only 5% from any one individual country, and requiring institutions to share “all known information” about their international students with the Department of Homeland Security and State Department. The document directly tied access to federal research funding, grants, student loans and approval of student visas to cooperation with the terms. None of these requirements were listed in the letter sent on Monday. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology became the first university to openly reject the deal days after it was proposed.