NASFAA Joins Organizations in Opposing Trump Administration’s Higher Education Compact
By Maria Carrasco, NASFAA Staff Reporter
NASFAA, along with 30 other higher education organizations, released a statement opposing the Trump administration’s higher education compact, outlining concerns that the proposal threatens “to undermine the very qualities that make our system exceptional.”
The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, introduced by the Trump administration earlier this month, seeks to offer institutions preferential federal funding if they agree to implement multiple policy changes. Some of those changes included are that institutions would prohibit considering "sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations, or proxies for any of those factors" in admissions decisions, scholarship, or programming; a commitment to freezing effective tuition rates for American students for five years; a commitment to "an intellectually open campus environment”; and more. It is unclear whether an institution’s federal funding would be at risk if they do not agree to the compact.
So far, multiple institutions have rejected this proposal. Since the compact’s initial conception and invitation to nine institutions, the administration has expanded the invitation to more than 5,000 institutions.
The statement, led by the American Council on Education (ACE), stresses that the administration’s compact is not in the best interests of institutions, students, scholars, and the country. The proposal would impose “unprecedented litmus tests on colleges and universities as a condition for receiving ill-defined ‘federal benefits’ related to funding and grants.”
“The compact offers nothing less than government control of a university’s basic and necessary freedoms—the freedoms to decide who we teach, what we teach, and who teaches—as outlined by Justice Frankfurter seventy-five years ago,” the statement reads. “The compact is just the kind of excessive federal overreach and regulation, to the detriment of state and local input and control, that this administration says it is against.”
Furthermore, the organizations argue that this compact would hamper institutions’ ability to innovate, hinder freedom of expression for all points of view, and not help in expanding social and economic mobility for all students.
“To be clear, we agree that higher education has room for improvement and we strive to do more to spur student success and support the discovery-based research that fuels our new industries,” the statement reads. “We want to do this in collaboration with policymakers and industry, but undue government control is not the way for higher education to deliver on all of its promise.”
Publication Date: 10/23/2025
Linzy W | 10/27/2025 11:7:50 AM
I don't know if this is the final draft, but I think I've found a copy of the compact at this link.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Compact-for-Academic-Excellence-in-Higher-Education-10.1.pdf
Armand R | 10/24/2025 1:29:53 PM
"Some of those changes included are that institutions would prohibit considering "sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious associations, or proxies for any of those factors" in admissions decisions, scholarship, or programming"
"I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Looks like the Trump administration is moving in the right direction and, once again, NASFAA finds itself on the wrong side of the issue.
Chase D | 10/23/2025 5:52:04 PM
I was able to find a text of the administration's compact and it overtly emphasizes equal treatment of students and faculty hires. For ACE to laughably characterize this as controlling institutions and "decide who we teach" makes one wonder if something else is at play. After all, if ACE were a civil rights group, I doubt they would have nodded along with segregationists appealing to their freedom to "decide who they serve." Yes, the compact is unclear at points and the mention of preferential treatment for a federal program is odd. However, free thinking individuals--in higher ed of all places--should be able to read and interpret themselves. Which brings me to this: I do not recall NASFAA ever posting the text of the compact for all to read. Mention of the compact has only appeared in links to oppositional sources and now, as NASFAA signing onto a poorly predicated statement. We expect more from NASFAA leadership.
Kaitlyn S | 10/23/2025 5:14:28 PM
Thank you NASFAA!
Jason J | 10/23/2025 10:48:28 AM
Good on NASFAA for this!
Troy D | 10/23/2025 10:3:13 AM
I would agree that this will have a negative impact on education in general. Why can we not adopt the concept of treating others the way we want to be treated and remove ourselves from the rhetoric of placing everyone in a mold that demands they act, speak, and acknowledge people in ways that do not promote unity.
David S | 10/23/2025 9:41:07 AM
Thank you for doing the right thing. The administration can't say that it's dismantling the Department of Education because they claim the federal government has no role in education, and then turn around and try to exercise control over what colleges can and can't teach, who they can and can't admit or hire, how to run their finances and what students, faculty and staff can and can't say.
In a typical year, over a million students from outside the US come here to study; being an international student already takes an enormous commitment and belief in the quality of the education you're seeking. Add to that the fact that every one of those million-plus students could find a less expensive sticker price literally anywhere, and it's hard not to conclude that the American system of higher ed is held in very high regard throughout the world. It's not in need of an extreme heightened and unprecedented (even unconstitutional) level of federal oversight.
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