The University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Pennsylvania State University, and Princeton University belong to a national university group whose leaders helped the U.S. Department of Education develop a new list of reforms it would like all colleges to adopt by the end of the year.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on Monday sent a letter to colleges asking them to agree in public statements on their websites to wide-ranging reforms that include cracking down on protests, hiring more conservative faculty, combating grade inflation, taking steps to ensure there aren’t “covert” attempts to use race-conscious admissions practices, and containing tuition costs, among other changes.
There is no plan to sanction schools that don’t sign on, but those that do could be in line to get more research funding, according to Bloomberg, the first to report on the letter, citing a White House official.
The latest effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to reshape higher education at least initially appears to be getting a warmer response than the list of demands made in its controversial compact that was rejected by most universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, last year.
The reforms were developed with the help of four university presidents from the Association of American Universities, including the group’s board chair and vice chair, according to Bloomberg.
“We’d much rather be a partner than play the guessing game as we have been,” Douglas Girod, president of the University of Kansas and board chair, told Bloomberg.
AAU president Barbara Snyder told Bloomberg she planned to call on her member colleges to support the plan.
Penn is one of 71 research universities nationally and in Canada that belong to the group. The university did not respond to a request for comment on whether it planned to participate.
Penn last October rejected the White House’s university compact, which would have given the school preferential consideration for federal funding in exchange for agreeing to operational demands. Many groups on campus had spoken out against the compact, and Penn president J. Larry Jameson in a letter to the federal government at that time said he outlined areas where Penn found “existing alignment” with the compact and where the school had “substantive concerns.”
“For the good of the nation, university leadership must seize this occasion to drive essential reforms — a process some began by adopting positions of institutional neutrality and improving policies related to campus protests,” McMahon wrote in her letter Monday. She called on all colleges to “describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, and national service — commitments that make our universities a bedrock institution of the American republic.”
She acknowledged that not every college’s response would be the same, but presented schools with a series of questions that they should address. Among them are:
“How will your institution ensure admissions decisions are based on merit, achievement, and your university’s educational purpose?”
“How will you guarantee that unruly and violent protesters do not harass students or disrupt classes, research, public lectures, and campus operations?”
“How will your faculty hiring and evaluation practices support academic vitality and ensure that all relevant perspectives are taken seriously?”
“What can your school do to contain costs, improve pricing transparency, and ensure that every academic program equips students to repay their loans?”
“How will your school protect academic programs from foreign influence and safeguard the integrity of the research enterprise?”
McMahon also warned against allowing academic disciplines to foster political and social goals.
“When disciplines skew toward one side of the ideological spectrum, the truth-seeking function of the university suffers and public trust declines,” McMahon wrote.
Penn State said its leadership team had received the letter and is reviewing it.
Rutgers said it also had received the letter and “welcomes constructive dialogue with federal and state policymakers and remains focused on providing an excellent, accessible education that advances research to serve New Jersey and the nation.”
Princeton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We look forward to learning more from the Department of Education about this effort and collaborating to advance shared goals,” Waded Cruzado, president of the Association of Public & Land Grant Universities, said in a statement. Penn State, Rutgers, Temple University, and the University of Delaware are part of that group.
The other three AAU presidents involved in drafting the new reforms include Andrew Martin at Washington University in St. Louis, Michael M. Crow at Arizona State University, and Ron Daniels at Johns Hopkins University.
Temple is not a part of AAU, but Temple president John Fry has worked closely with Crow, whose university sponsors the University Innovation Alliance that Temple joined last year. The alliance is a national organization of public universities aimed at finding innovations to improve learning and increase college attendance, retention, and graduation rates ― especially for low-income students ― then scaling those innovations across campuses. It was founded by 11 presidents including Crow.
Fry at the time described Crow as a mentor and said that he had known him for more than 30 years. They started presidencies simultaneously in 2002, Fry at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and Crow at Arizona State.
In a statement, Temple said it was “carefully reviewing” the letter from McMahon.
“Upon initial review, much of what is outlined in the letter is consistent with core tenets of what we do as a university,” the school said. “Our approach will continue to be guided by our mission and our strategic plan.”
Martin, of Washington University, told Bloomberg that he planned to respond to the McMahon letter.
“My expectation is this letter will have some things in it not everybody will agree with, but that universities will consider it,” he told Bloomberg. “Certainly compared to the compact, I think this is a step in the right direction.”
