Iowa regents ‘reviewing’ Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education

IOWA CITY — With a growing chorus of constituents urging Iowa’s Board of Regents to either sign or reject the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” a board spokesman confirmed, “We are reviewing the compact.”

When asked whether the board plans to discuss the proposed compact at its next meeting — scheduled for Nov. 11-13 on the Iowa State University campus — board spokesman Josh Lehman said only that the agenda will be released Nov. 4.

“We urge the board to reject President Trump’s ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’ so we can maintain our cherished universities,” Iowa House Democrats wrote in a letter to the board Oct. 22, highlighting reasons the institutions are esteemed — like their high academic standards, impactful research, and educational opportunities. “All of that is at risk if Iowa complies with the president’s compact.”

On the flip side, Republican leaders in the House and Senate on Oct. 12 — just after President Donald Trump opened the compact up to any college, and not just the nine initially invited — expressed their hope “the board recognizes the importance of this moment, and will do the right thing for Iowa taxpayers and students by signing on to the compact as soon as possible.”

“Iowa has a chance to be a leader in higher education reform by having our universities be the first to sign on to this compact,” Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, chair of the Committee on Education, and Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, chair of the Committee on Higher Education, wrote in their letter to the board.

Two weeks later, Iowa’s public universities still have that chance — with seven of the original nine invited campuses outright rejecting the plan, two offering feedback without committing to sign, and three more invited after the initial rejections remaining non-committal.

“I can confirm that the university is not ‘seeking preferential treatment by our federal government in exchange for compliance with one political ideology’,” Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Andrew D. Martin wrote in a letter to faculty Oct. 22 — in response to a Faculty Senate council statement.

Washington University in St. Louis wasn’t among the original nine invited to sign but was invited to give feedback during an Oct. 17 meeting.

“I can also confirm that we won’t sign the proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education offered to us for feedback, or any document that undermines our mission or our core values, perhaps highest among these our commitment to academic freedom, access, free expression, and research integrity.”

The proposed compact touches on eight higher education categories — including admissions, faculty hiring, free speech, academics, student equality, financial responsibility, and international students.

Among other things, it would require signed-on campuses to bar consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, freeze tuition, commit not to allow transgender women to be in female bathrooms or in women’s sports, and abolish units or departments that “punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

The University of Iowa’s Campaign to Organize Graduate Students union — or COGS — signed onto its United Electrical Higher-Ed Conference Board statement calling on university administrators to reject the compact.

“Republican state lawmakers, as well as former regent David Barker, are urging the Iowa Board of Regents to join Trump's so-called ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’,” according to the COGS statement. “But to do so would be a betrayal of students, faculty, and staff at the University of Iowa. Capitulating to Trump's demands will risk the safety and well-being of Black, brown, LGBTQ+, and immigrant members of our campus community, and erode the quality of education and diversity of thought being offered by Iowa’s premier public university.”

Acquiescing to Trump’s demands, according to the student union, will lead to more "right-wing attacks on higher education“ — not fewer.

“We are therefore demanding that the Board of Regents and UI President Barbera Wilson stand up to Trump and reject this deal.”

In addition to the local and national union statements condemning the compact proposal, a group of higher education associations — including the American Association of Colleges and Universities, American Association of University Professors, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, and the Council of Independent Colleges — issued a statement “unified in our opposition.”

“The compact offers nothing less than government control of a university’s basic and necessary freedoms — the freedoms to decide who we teach, what we teach, and who teaches,” according to the statement. “The compact is just the kind of excessive federal overreach and regulation, to the detriment of state and local input and control, that this administration says it is against.”

Iowa Democratic leaders cited that statement in the letter signed by 22 lawmakers Oct. 22.

“We urge you to stand with the academic organizations and an increasing number of coalitions, cities, and individuals that have called on institutions to reject the President’s compact.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com