Penn Releases Compact Rejection Letter Sent to McMahon

On Friday, the University of Pennsylvania publicly released the letter President J. Larry Jameson sent to Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Oct. 16 rejecting the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

That makes Penn the last invited institution that has declined the agreement to release not just a public statement but also the text of its correspondence with McMahon. As Jameson wrote to the Penn community, “Many of you have requested access to the actual letter,” inspiring the university to release it “in the spirit of transparency.”

The first half of Jameson’s letter to McMahon finds common ground with the Trump administration, agreeing that universities “must uphold the highest standards of excellence grounded in merit, integrity, and accountability.”

It notes that many of Penn’s policies and practices already align with core components of Trump’s compact, including compliance with federal nondiscrimination laws in hiring and admissions, adherence to institutional neutrality and “viewpoint-neutral rules governing time, place, and manner of expression,” and need-based aid, with free tuition for students from families earning less than $200,000 a year.

And it suggests the potential for further engagement on combating grade inflation, which it acknowledges Penn shares as a concern.

Responding to the compact’s initial request for “limited, targeted feedback,” Jameson also lays out his “areas of concern,” including the promise of preferential treatment for signatories. In language similar to that used by other campus leaders who rejected the compact, he writes, “Penn seeks no special consideration beyond fair and merit-based funding.”

He also takes issue with the compact’s omission of academic freedom as a “foundational principle,” its prioritization of free tuition for students pursuing “hard sciences” and the punitive use of funding cuts “based on subjective standards and undefined processes.”

“America’s great universities already have a compact with the American people. It is built on the open exchange of ideas, merit-based selection and achievement, and freedom of inquiry to yield knowledge,” the letter concludes. “Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed Compact.”