The AAMC joined an Oct. 17 statement from the higher education community expressing strong opposition to the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education (PDF). The compact demands certain conditions, including a five-year tuition freeze, caps on international students, bans on considering race or sex in admissions and hiring, mandatory standardized testing, enforced political neutrality, and a narrow definition of sex used in curriculum and university policies. Letters to presidents of the nine universities first offered the compact suggested that adherence to the terms of the compact would provide the institution with expanded federal benefits, including preferential access to federal research funding.
The associations behind the statement urged the administration to withdraw the compact, warning that it would harm innovation, academic freedom, and the mission of higher education to promote economic opportunity and discovery. “Now more than ever, we must unite to protect the values and principles that have made American higher education the global standard. This compact would not achieve those goals. Rather, it would hamper the ability of colleges and universities to innovate and make advancements that contribute to our nation’s economic well-being and security. It would hinder, not safeguard, freedom of expression for all points of view, and it will not assist in expanding social and economic mobility for all of our students.”