Earlier this year, Education Secretary Linda McMahon extended many of America's most prestigious universities the opportunity to sign her "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education."

Although the deal offered extra funding in exchange for more political freedom and an end to racial discrimination, many institutions have rejected it. 

Six colleges have rejected offer

That's according to Breitbart, which reported that Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia (UVA) became the latest universities to do so.

Similar rejections have already been registered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Southern California.

Meanwhile, Vanderbilt University, the University of Arizona, and the University of Texas, Austin have yet to reach a decision on the matter.

Dartmouth president Sian Leah Beilock sent a letter to McMahon which read, "I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact—whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House—is the right way to focus America’s leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission."

Gavin Newsom threatens to withhold funds if schools sign compact

Meanwhile, UVA interim president Paul Mahoney indicated in a letter of his own that UVA already agrees "with many of the principles outlined in the Compact."

Nevertheless, he asserted that the college seeks "no special treatment in exchange” for improving them, including “a thriving marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and equal treatment of students."

For his part, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom put up a social media post which threatened to withhold funds from any school that signed on to the compact.

IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY'LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY.

CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM. pic.twitter.com/iZhln3rfBM

— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) October 2, 2025

"IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY’LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY," he declared.

Compact requires crackdown on violence and intimidation

Breitbart noted how the compact would mandate that colleges ban the use of race in hiring and admissions, freeze tuition for five years, make the SAT or similar tests mandatory, and cap foreign undergraduate enrollment at 15% of the student body.

It also provides that "[u]niversities shall neither support nor permit a heckler’s veto through, for example, disruptions, violence, intimidation, or vandalism."

What's more, schools "shall be responsible for ensuring that they do not knowingly: (1) permit actions by the university, university employees, university students, or individuals external to the university community to delay or disrupt class instruction or disrupt libraries or other traditional study locations; (2) allow demonstrators to heckle or accost individual students or groups of students; or (3) allow obstruction of access to parts of campus based on students’ race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion."