The rejection comes after the administration sent funding compacts to nine universities.
University of Pennsylvania President Larry Jameson confirmed in an email Thursday that the board rejected the Trump administration’s proposed preferential funding compact. The offer, initially extended to nine universities, came after several of those institutions clashed with the administration over federal funding earlier this year. Penn is now the fourth university to decline the proposal, joining USC, Brown, and MIT.
“Earlier today, I informed the U.S. Department of Education that Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed compact,” Jameson wrote in an October 16 letter. “As requested, we also provided focused feedback highlighting areas of existing alignment as well as substantive concerns.”
His message came eleven days after the university confirmed it received President Trump’s compact and stated campus leadership was reviewing the proposal. Jameson added that his goal was to ensure the response “reflected Penn’s values and the perspective of its broad community.”
The Trump administration’s proposal would require participating universities to adopt certain Department of Education priorities in exchange for preferential consideration in federal funding decisions. Among its provisions, the compact calls on schools to prohibit the use of Biden-era Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion standards in admissions and hiring, and to define the terms “man” and “woman” strictly according to biological sex.
The administration previously battled universities over policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports and access female locker rooms. The proposal also includes measures aimed at addressing factors the administration argues contributed to violent pro-Palestine riots on college campuses in 2024.
In its memo to universities, the administration argued the compact would promote “academic excellence” and make participating institutions eligible for priority funding. The proposal followed earlier efforts by President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency to restrict certain federal funds to campuses as part of broader cuts to what they considered wasteful spending.
Among the universities that received the offer were Penn, Brown, USC, MIT, the University of Arizona, the University of Texas, and the University of Virginia. The letters, sent on October 1, asked institutions that declined to sign the compact to submit formal feedback.
Following Penn’s decision, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro released a statement criticizing the Trump administration’s compact and commending President Jameson for refusing to sign. Shapiro called the move “the right decision to maintain full academic independence and integrity.”
His remarks came shortly after White House spokesperson Liz Huston warned that universities declining the offer could lose access to federal funding and taxpayer-backed benefits. “Merit should be the primary criteria for federal grant funding,” Jameson said. “Yet too many universities have abandoned academic excellence in favor of divisive and destructive efforts such as ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
