More on Trump’s “Compact” with higher education: rejections and expansion

Earlier this month I wrote about the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” That post appeared fresh off the announcement. Since then some developments have occurred, lately with increasing speed. I’ll summarize them here, adding links to analyses along with a bit of my own.

To recap: the Trump administration pitched an agreement to a select group of nine elite colleges and universities. It asked Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas, the University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University to agree to certain internal changes in response for more favorable federal treatment.

Things have been happening since, especially over the past two weeks.

The compact’s text wasn’t publicly available when the news first broke, but folks have published it since. Here’s one copy. Here’s another, posted to a Reddit. And here’s a third, hosted by a conservative outlet. There’s also a Wikipedia page, naturally, which looks useful. Higher Ed Dive now has a compact tracker.

Institutional responses started appearing in small numbers after the compact’s announcement. Two faculty senates voted measures opposing the compact, those of the University of Arizona on October 1 and of the University of Virginia on October 3rd. Also on the…