Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier on Monday denied that the U.S. Department of Education asked the institution to sign a federal compact with eight other universities that would pledge to prohibit race-based admissions processes, strictly define genders on biological grounds, and limit the enrollment of international students, instead stating that the university was only asked to provide feedback on a draft version of the document.
The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education was reportedly sent to nine colleges and universities, including Vanderbilt University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Arizona , University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California (USC), University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Virginia (UVA).
“Despite reporting to the contrary, we have not been asked to accept or reject the draft compact. Rather, we have been asked to provide feedback and comments as part of an ongoing dialogue, and that is our intention,” said Vanderbilt University Chancellor Daniel Diermeier in an email to community members, according to WKRN.
The chancellor reportedly stated, “[O]ur policy of institutional neutrality not only permits comment by the university’s leadership, it encourages it. Therefore, Vanderbilt will continue to share our point of view with the administration.”
In addition to the gender, race, and international student requirements, the compact would bar bodies that “prohibit or belittle conservative ideas” and promote a balanced environment where “no single ideology” dominates, and require the institutions to remain neutral on “societal and political events.”
The compact also contains language aimed at combating grade inflation, caps foreign student enrollment at 15 percent, and would freeze tuition costs for American students for five years.
In exchange for signing the compact, the nine schools would receive additional federal financial benefits.
While Vanderbilt University claimed it was not asked to sign the compact, The Washington Post reported on Monday that six of the nine schools publicly rejected the proposal, including UVA, Dartmouth, MIT, Brown, Penn, and USC.
The newspaper said only the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Texas System Board of Regents, expressed enthusiasm toward the compact. The University of Arizona president has since confirmed the university, “has not agreed to the terms outlined in the draft proposal.”
The Tennessee Star contacted the Department of Education on Tuesday to clarify what was asked of Vanderbilt University and whether the compact is currently in a draft state, but did not receive an immediate response.
Vanderbilt University has repeatedly drawn headlines as universities chafe against the Trump administration’s attempt to moderate the politics at the nation’s institutions of higher learning.
In February, Vanderbilt University quietly scrubbed a web page titled, “Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion,” and by March was under investigation by the Civil Rights office of the Education Department for alleged, “use of racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities.”
More recently, the university appointed the law firm Baker Donelson to conduct an independent investigation in July, after a secretly recorded video posted to social media appeared to show faculty members describing how Vanderbilt University secretly defies executive orders signed by President Donald Trump.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Vanderbilt University” by Vanderbilt University.
I would not count on Vanderbilt abandoning its leftist agenda. Vanderbilt is among many on my list of colleges/universities I would never consider sending my children or one penny of my money. I resent that my tax dollars go to this institution. Most of these establishments, in my opinion, are not institutions of higher learning but instead are communist finishing schools.