PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The University of Pennsylvania is the latest campus to reject President Donald Trump’s higher education “Compact for Academic Excellence.”
The Ivy League university told Trump officials that it “respectfully declines” to sign the agreement, according to a campus message from Penn President J. Larry Jameson.
Jameson says he consulted with faculty, alumni, trustees and others to ensure the school’s response reflected its values.
The Trump administration invited nine universities to become initial signatories of the Compact, offering “multiple positive benefits” including favorable access to federal funding. In exchange, universities were asked to make commitments aligned with Trump’s agenda.
It asked for commitments to remove race from admissions decisions, to promote conservative views on campus, to limit protests and to ensure “institutional neutrality” on current events, among other provisions.
Penn’s response follows other rejections from Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The other six universities are either still considering or have not given public comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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