Two days after the Trump administration asked Dartmouth College and eight other schools to commit to the White House’s political goals in exchange for priority access to federal funding, Dartmouth’s president issued a four-sentence statement.
“As many of you know, Dartmouth was one of nine universities asked by the White House to give feedback by Oct. 20 on a draft of its ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,’ ” Sian Leah Beilock stated in her Friday message to the Dartmouth community.
“I am deeply committed to Dartmouth’s academic mission and values and will always defend our fierce independence.
“You have often heard me say that higher education is not perfect and that we can do better. At the same time, we will never compromise our academic freedom and our ability to govern ourselves.”
Dartmouth students and faculty voiced mixed reactions to Beilock’s response.
“I’m really happy that she’s expressed a negative response. (But) I feel like she could have been a little bit more forthcoming,” Sarah Hedgecock, a first-year student from North Carolina, said in an interview on campus.
“I wish she could have been like: ‘We will not sign it,’ ” she said.
“I thought (her statement) was so vague,” senior Grace Payne said.
“I think the college probably understands that there’s a fear of setting things in motion on campus,” she added.
The White House’s 10-point memo issued to Dartmouth and eight other highly regarded schools asks them to commit to a number of conditions that align with the administration’s policy positions and vision for higher education.
The conditions include “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas” and requiring that prospective undergraduate students take the SAT or an equivalent test.
The proposal also requires that universities disregard race and gender when admitting students as well as hiring faculty and staff, that international students must not make up more than 15% of the undergraduate population and that universities with endowments exceeding $2 million per undergraduate student must waive tuition fees for students enrolled in “hard science” programs.
“It’s absolutely an existential threat. And I think higher ed will not be what it has been for my whole career and for way longer before that if colleges start signing on to this contract,” Dartmouth history professor Annelise Orleck said.
Orleck also pointed out that the compact would be in direct violation of Dartmouth’s charter, which states that the college is independently governed by the Board of Trustees.
The compact’s requirement that institutions enforce single-gender bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams and that they define “male” and “female” according to reproductive function are among Orleck’s biggest concerns.
She said she hopes the most marginalized students on campus know they have her support.
“I have no idea what’s coming,” she said. “But you’re not alone.”
While Beilock’s statement underscored her commitment to Dartmouth’s independence, Kevin Eltife, the chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents issued a statement last week saying: “Today we welcome the new opportunity presented to us and we look forward to working with the Trump Administration on it.”
Other universities who received the proposal have yet to issue a response.
The deadline for schools to offer feedback on the proposal to the White House is Oct. 20.
Payne said she thinks Dartmouth will wait to “see how other colleges decide” before deciding whether to agree to the proposal.
“We’re kind of a wait-and-see school,” she said.
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