UNC-Chapel Hill's chancellor says the university will not sign on to a higher education compact from the Trump administration.
Last month, the Trump administration sent nine universities a proposal called the "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education."
It promised universities "preferential treatment" for federal funding if they agreed to a set of demands. Those include requiring institutional neutrality, limiting international student enrollment, and establishing protections for conservative ideas, among several other mandates.
After none of the nine original institutions signed on to the compact, Trump opened the deal up to all colleges and universities. Chancellor Lee Roberts told faculty at a council meeting last week that he believes the compact is "clearly an infringement on academic freedom."
"There are some parts of the compact that we are already doing and there are some parts of the compact that would be difficult or impossible for us to do," Roberts said at the meeting. "There's really no way that we can sign the compact as written and we don't plan to."
As of now, no university has agreed to Trump's compact and Roberts said he doesn't foresee a "continued effort" from the administration to get schools to sign on.
Several faculty members, however, were worried UNC-Chapel Hill administrators could later decide to join the compact if the Trump administration chose to rewrite it. Some were also concerned the UNC Board of Governors could override UNC-Chapel Hill's decision if a request came to the UNC System Office.
Roberts said he hasn't heard any discussion of the Trump administration reaching out to the UNC System about the compact.
"We have about $1.5 billion in federal research funding," Roberts said. "We're in the top 10 nationally. So we, I think, have an obligation to maintain a really strong dialog with the administration in all its facets. And that's what we'll continue to do."
"I can't promise that we'll put any conversation that we have with the administration to a vote of the Faculty Council," Roberts continued. "But I can promise that we're highly aware of our responsibilities with respect to protecting the academic freedom of the institution to consulting with the faculty."
Multiple UNC-Chapel Hill faculty and student groups organized collective actions speaking out against the compact, including a SUNRISE UNC protest shortly before the Faculty Council meeting and a petition from the Coalition for Carolina that has amassed over 1,750 signatures.
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