UVA declines to sign White House “Compact for Academic Excellence”

Several hours after hundreds attended a rally on the University of Virginia Lawn, interim President Paul Mahoney has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education declining an invitation to enter into the proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence.” 

“A contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education,” reads Mahoney’s letter. 

The Compact was proposed on October 1 in a letter from U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to nine schools including UVA. Check out an earlier story here.

Provisions in the compact include eliminating departments that “that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas” and freezing tuition rates for five years. International students would be capped at fifteen percent of total enrollment. Learn more about the Compact on Wikipedia.

Mahoney and Rector Rachel Sheridan had set up a working group to go through the compact to come up with a response which has resulted in the first denial of the Compact by a public university. 

In his letter, Mahoney wrote that UVA supports many of the goals of the Compact and will continue to work toward improving higher education. 

“We also agree with many of the principles outlined in the Compact, including a fair and unbiased admissions process, an affordable and academically rigorous education, a thriving marketplace of ideas, institutional neutrality, and equal treatment of students, faculty, and staff in all aspects of university operations,” Mahoney wrote. 

However, Mahoney said UVA seeks no special treatment in exchange for agreeing to various conditions. 

“Higher education faces significant challenges and has not always lived up to its highest ideals,” Mahoney wrote. “We believe that the best path toward real and durable progress lies in an open and collaborative conversation,” 

The organizers of today’s rally celebrated Mahoney’s letter.

“Today’s events demonstrate the power of collective organizing and action to defeat tyranny,” reads an information release sent out at 5:14 p.m. “We hope that we serve as an example to the other public universities that received the ‘Compact’—the University of Texas, Austin and the University of Arizona—giving them the courage and clarity not to buckle.” 

For deeper coverage, read the Cavalier Daily’s story from this afternoon. There’s also a link to Mahoney’s full letter on UVA Today. This story will be updated for the next edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. 

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