Independent Newsmedia

Oct. 6, 2025

Dear President Garimella,

We are writing to express serious concern about the Trump Administration’s proposed Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. While the document attempts to present itself as an initiative to promote accountability and excellence, its structure and conditions amount to a direct federal intrusion into the autonomy and academic freedom of American universities — including institutions like ours that are built on the principles of open inquiry and independent governance.

While suggesting that compliance is voluntary, the compact’s language explicitly ties participation to access to essential federal benefits — including student aid, research funding, and even visa approvals. This framing transforms federal partnership into economic coercion, effectively compelling universities to conform to political directives under threat of financial deprivation.

Beyond funding, the compact reaches deeply into academic life. It dictates terms of admissions, hiring, and curriculum; enforces narrowly defined interpretations of gender and identity; and imposes “institutional neutrality” requirements that would prohibit departments and faculty from publicly engaging with pressing social, environmental, or political issues, even when directly relevant to their fields of expertise. Such restrictions would stifle the University’s ability to contribute to informed public discourse — one of our most vital responsibilities as a public research institution — and to recruit top academic talent.

Equally concerning are the compact’s mandates for federal oversight of “ideological balance” within the university. The required “viewpoint diversity assessments” and the potential for federal enforcement through the Department of Justice would establish a form of ideological surveillance incompatible with academic freedom. These mechanisms invite political manipulation of scholarship and governance, undermining the intellectual independence that has long distinguished the American university system.

The compact further redefines academic freedom as conditional upon government-approved speech and conduct. By requiring annual certification of compliance from university leadership, it risks transforming presidents, provosts, and deans into enforcers of federal ideology rather than defenders of scholarly inquiry.

The University of Arizona has long stood as a model of academic rigor, open exchange, and civic engagement. We are strongest when our scholars and students are free to question, critique, and explore ideas without fear of reprisal or restriction. Adoption of this compact — or any policy that subjects academic life to federal ideological control — would compromise the very foundation of that freedom.

We urge you, and the leadership of our university, to publicly reject the Compact for Academic Excellence and affirm the University of Arizona’s commitment to independent thought, diversity of perspectives, and the unimpeded pursuit of knowledge. Our state’s flagship university must remain a place where ideas are tested by evidence and debate — not dictated by government mandate.

Thank you for your leadership and for your continued defense of the values that make the University of Arizona a beacon of higher learning and intellectual integrity.

Sincerely,

Rep. Stephanie Stahl-Hamilton, District 21;  Senate Minority Leader Priya Sundareshan, District 18; Senate Minority Whip Rosanna Gabaldón District, District 21; House Minority Assistant Leader Nancy Gutierrez, District 18; Rep. Christopher Mathis, District 18; Rep. Betty Villegas, District 20; Rep. Mariana Sandoval, District 23

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