Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump really wants to bend universities, especially the elite ones, to his will. They are a power center separate from himself and he can't tolerate that. He is running a two-front war on them: stick and carrot. On the stick front, he has unilaterally canceled contracts to try to cure cancer and other useful things just to punish them, even though the courts have frowned upon this. On the carrot front, he offered nine top universities special—but very vague—future benefits if they basically turn over governance of the university to him. The 10-page deal is very specific about what universities have to do to get the deal and even more specific about the penalties they face if they sign and then don't do all the things they promised. It is not at all specific about the benefits other than some funding "where feasible" (hint: it won't be feasible). Maybe the only benefit might be something like compliant universities will be able to get AG Pam Bondi to speak on campus about her vision of justice and universities that don't sign won't be able to get her to speak.
It took about a week, but one university, MIT, gave Trump an answer, and it is "No, thanks." MIT President Sally Kornbluth politely explained that letting Trump run MIT in exchange for some possible future benefit, if feasible, was not something she was waiting for.
Actually, Kornbluth blew it. What she should have done is contacted all the other universities on the list and gotten as many as possible to sign a single letter saying "No thanks," thus showing solidarity with each other. That would have made them much stronger and would inspire the next batch of invitees (if any) to respond the same way.
Teresa Sullivan, the former president of the University of Virginia, one of the other invitees, said: "It's pretty vague what the advantages are of signing the compact. If you're thinking of this as a deal, it's a one-sided deal." The things signees would have to do include freezing tuition for 5 years, limiting the number of foreign students, defining sex as male or female only, banning the use of race and sex in admissions decisions, muzzling political discussion on campus, and punishing departments that belittle conservative ideas. It is clearly a nonstarter.
It is hard to tell whether Trump was even serious with the offer or he was just trolling the universities and daring them to say no as a pretext for more sticks in the future. If he really wanted them to sign, the benefits should have been as explicit as the penalties for noncompliance after signing up. There was basically no reason for any university to accept the deal, put itself under his thumb, and then get nothing in return. Presumably all of the others, except maybe the University of Texas, will turn down the wonderful offer. The decision for Texas will be made by the Greg Abbott-appointed board of regents, so that will probably be a "yes." (V)