Emory University’s Interim Provost Lanny Liebeskind announced that Interim University President Leah Ward Sears (80L) had no plans to sign U.S. President Donald Trump’s Compact of Academic Excellence in Higher Education during an Oct. 21 Faculty Council meeting.
The compact promises signers expanded access to federal grants and partnerships, while warning that those who do not accept its terms may risk losing research funding, student loans, grant programs, non-profit tax status and visa approval for international students. Initially, the Trump administration proposed the compact to nine universities on Oct. 1.
After the Massachusetts Institute of Technology rejected the compact on Oct. 10, Trump opened the agreement to all universities on Oct. 14. Out of the nine universities to which the Trump administration extended its offer, seven universities have publicly declined to sign. Vanderbilt University’s (Tenn.) chancellor announced that it had been asked to provide feedback on Trump’s proposal, but the Trump administration did not ask the University to accept or reject the compact.
At the Oct. 21 Faculty Council meeting, Liebskind said that Sears and her team had reviewed the compact to determine its implications for the University. Noëlle McAfee, University Senate and Faculty Council president, confirmed that Fenves and others investigated the intricacies of the compact to “see to what extent we should or shouldn’t consider it,” and ultimately decided not to agree to the compact. Likewise, Sears’ Chief of Staff Matthew Pinson also confirmed that Emory currently has “no plans” to sign the compact.
“We’ve never been asked to sign [the compact], and we’ve had no plans to sign,” Liebeskind said. “Reading the compact and trying to understand what's in there is probably … all that was going on.”
If accepted, the compact would have required Emory to prohibit “discriminatory admissions processes,” promote academic discourse, implement non-discriminatory hiring practices and maintain neutrality toward political issues that do not affect the University. The compact also calls for grading transparency, tuition-free education at institutions with an endowment larger than $2 billion and restrictions on university financial transactions unrelated to educational purposes.
The American Council on Education, a higher education advocacy group, warned that the compact’s terms would increase government control and threaten what makes American universities “the envy of the world.”
“The compact is a step in the wrong direction,” the statement reads. “The dictates set by it are harmful for higher education and our entire nation, no matter your politics.”
At their Oct. 21 meeting, the Faculty Council passed a resolution 19-0 commending peer universities that have not accepted the compact and calling on Emory to reject the compact “in its entirety.” The Faculty Council is an advisory body with no formal authority in administrative decision-making.
Correction (11/18/2025 at 10:24 p.m.): A previous version of this article stated that U.S. President Donald Trump opened the compact agreement to all universities on Oct. 20. In fact, Trump opened the agreement on Oct. 14.
Siya Kumar (she/her) (28C) is a news editor at The Emory Wheel. She is from New Orleans, La., majoring in Economics and Creative Writing on the pre-law track. Outside of the Wheel, Kumar is a market news analyst for the Emory Economics Investment Forum and a writer for the Emory Economics Review. She loves baking, reading, and drinking coffee.
