U.S. Congressman Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) today urged Arizona State University President Michael Crow to reject any offer by the Trump administration to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which promises preferential access to federal grants in exchange for complying with White House demands. Stanton represents ASU’s main Tempe campus in Congress.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported White House officials had invited ASU and two other universities to discuss the proposal after six of the nine early invitees rejected it. Stanton previously urged the University of Arizona’s president to reject the compact.
“During your tenure, ASU’s research dollars have increased exponentially, based on scientific merit, not preferential treatment,” Stanton writes. “The Trump administration’s compact represents an unprecedented intrusion into higher education, replacing academic freedom and institutional judgment with ideological dictates and rigid mandates. These aren't reforms—they're instruments of political control. By dictating who universities admit and hire, what they teach, and even how they conduct research, the Trump administration aims to strip higher education of its independence and bend it into an arm of his political power.”
The full letter is HERE.