In October 2025, the Trump administration made a controversial proposal to nine major colleges and universities, including Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia. The administration offered them a deal: If they agreed to adopt certain policy changes, such as revising admissions and hiring practices, they would receive advantages in federal funding programs.

The administration later expanded the list of schools to more than 100 that could benefit from the deal, which it called the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.

The plan included a wide range of policy changes. For example, it would require schools to cap international student enrollment at about 15% and to use “legal force” against disruptive protesters.

Only three small schools not initially approached by the Trump administration agreed to sign the restrictive proposal: The New College of Florida, a public, liberal arts college in Sarasota; Valley Forge Military College, a private, two-year military college in Wayne, Pennsylvania; and Grand Canyon University, a private Christian school in Phoenix.

Although the proposed agreement has received little public attention in the past few months, as a sociologist who has studied race and inequality, I think it is important to understand what the document says.

The proposal reveals President Donald Trump’s vision for U.S. colleges and universities. In this vision, universities would have less ethnic and racial diversity, and people’s First Amendment rights would be weakened.

The proposal also suggests a stronger federal role in shaping how universities operate, which I see as a major departure from the long-standing U.S. tradition of academic freedom.

A second act?

Despite the compact’s lack of support among universities, the Trump administration has indicated it may revise the plan.

In an interview on Jan. 21, 2026, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the administration is working on an updated version.

“There was a draft version, preliminary version, that went out that was intended to be sent to universities to get their reaction from it. … We are working on developing the right kind of compact with some input that we’re already getting,” McMahon said in an interview with The Daily Signal.

The proposal’s broad scope

The original version of the compact included several major policy requirements.

First, universities would be prohibited from giving any preference to prospective students or faculty candidates based on their “sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations.”

This aligns with a 2023 Supreme Court decision that colleges and universities cannot consider race as a factor in admissions decisions.

Second, the proposal would mandate that college student applicants take a widely used standardized test like the SAT – a requirement that an increasing number of schools have dropped in recent years.

Third, the compact calls on universities to “maintain a vibrant marketplace of ideas where different views can be explored, debated and challenged.”

Universities would also need to transform or abolish “institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

This follows the Trump administration’s push for more viewpoint diversity, or the exchange of a wide range of philosophical and political perspectives. Conservatives have frequently criticized what they see as a liberal political bias on college campuses.

Fourth, the proposal would require campus administrators to use “lawful force” against “demonstrators” on campus. This action could be directed toward someone disrupting class instruction and libraries, or blocking certain parts of campuses.

The proposal also doubles down on Trump’s 2025 executive order that there are only two sexes: male and female.

This language would provide support for some universities limiting how gender is taught.

Texas A&M University announced in January 2026 that it is ending its women’s studies major. In February, the state of Florida also announced that it is limiting how sex and gender can be taught in introductory sociology classes at public universities.

Academic freedom under threat

The proposal does not specifically say that faculty cannot teach certain subjects or discuss particular issues.

But as a retired sociologist who has taught diversity-related courses and published a diversity textbook, I was particularly struck by the following part of the proposal: “Academic freedom is not absolute, and universities shall adopt policies that prevent discriminatory, threatening, harassing, or other behaviors that abridge the rights of other members of the university community.”

This very broad language gives university administrators, or government officials, leverage over professors’ and researchers’ basic, daily work and their overall academic freedom – meaning, their ability to research, teach and publish whatever they want, without fear of censorship or retaliation.

An ultimatum

None of the schools that the Trump administration initially approached signed on to the proposal.

The American Association of Colleges and Universities, one of the largest national higher education associations, described the compact as an ultimatum: Schools could sign the agreement and receive “multiple positive benefits,” including federal grants, or refuse and risk losing federal funding.

The American Association of University Professors, a national nonprofit that advocates for academic freedom, said that the plan “stinks of favoritism, patronage and bribery.”

Some conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation, supported the administration’s attempt to address problems in higher education, such as rising tuition.

However, the organization also warned that “federal officials should avoid expanding the government’s role in higher education” while pursuing those goals.

It is unclear whether the White House will release a revised version of the compact. Still, the original proposal offers insight into how the administration hopes to reshape American higher education.