Trump administration sent a new letter to U.S. universities. ASU's Crow reportedly helped shape it

The U.S. Education Department has sent a public letter to colleges and universities across the country, asking a series of questions.

Those questions include:

• How will your institution encourage intellectual pluralism in all its academic units?
• How will your institution ensure admissions decisions are based on merit, achievement, and your university’s educational purpose?
• How will you guarantee that unruly and violent protesters do not harass students or disrupt classes, research, public lectures, and campus operations?
  

The letter comes after the Trump administration offered a Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education to a handful of schools — including the University of Arizona — last year.

Joining The Show to explain the purpose of this new letter and what might come of it is Francie Diep, senior reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Francie, good morning.

FRANCIE DIEP: Good morning.

MARK BRODIE: So what do we know about why the Trump administration sent this letter to basically — it sounds like pretty much every college and university across the country?

FRANCIE DIEP: Well, I talked with an official at the Education Department, and he says this is part of a multi-pronged strategy to overhaul higher education in the U.S. It's no secret that the Trump administration thinks that American universities have a lot to fix, and this is just one of the ways they're trying to do that.

MARK BRODIE: Does the Education Department say that they are hoping that these questions will lead universities to make changes? Or is it, you know, there's a sense that, you know, the last one from last year was more of like a shaming or like a threat to cut funding, research funding? Is there anything like that on the table?

FRANCIE DIEP: There is no financial penalties or rewards for following this letter or not.

That said, again, the same official I talked to from the Education Department, he's a deputy chief of staff there, did say they are hoping that this, like the other things that they're doing, will start big changes in the university to follow the goals that the Trump administration thinks are important for colleges.

MARK BRODIE: What are you hearing from folks associated with the schools? Like what are, what are universities' reactions to this?

FRANCIE DIEP: Yeah, that's a great question. I've been trying to talk with a bunch of people, including both the leaders of universities and sort of the faculty members who work there. There's a range of responses.

You might be interested that Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University, which reportedly was involved in helping shape this letter. President Crow said — I'm not going to remember his exact statement, but basically said something like, this is a good opportunity for universities to talk about what they're doing and show their value to the American people.

The other end of the response spectrum, I would say, is, you know, that we have to look at the fact that over the past year and a half, the Trump administration has done a lot to — I think "attack" is a fair word — attack universities, and that this cannot be a good faith effort.

That said, I think there are a lot of people who are kind of waiting and seeing, trying to figure out how they feel about this. I think everybody in higher ed does feel better about this letter than they did about last year's compact because this letter is less prescriptive and because it does not specify clear financial consequences.

MARK BRODIE: Well, it's interesting. I mean, when the compact came out last year, a lot of folks at universities were saying that it was sort of infringing on academic freedom and was, you know, really kind of threatening universities.

It's interesting that this does not seem to be generating that same reaction.

FRANCIE DIEP: It's not generating as much of that reaction, but it is still generating that response from at least some parts of the sector. So the American Association of University Professors, which is a sort of advocacy group for professors, put out a statement that was pretty strong against this letter. They want the letter to be withdrawn. They still feel like this is an infringement upon academic freedom.

I can give you an example of how that could happen or how somebody could see this letter as an infringement even though it has no like requirements or anything in it. So there's sort of seven broad principles in the letter. Generally, they're ones that feel kind of common sense. A lot of universities would probably say that they have the same values. The seventh one talks about how American universities should put Americans first. Again, great value, surely many colleges ascribe to that.

That said, I would bet not every single college in the U.S. and not every single faculty member ascribes to that. For example, say you work in public health. Maybe you feel like your commitments are more to humanity in general than to America specifically, or you wouldn't want to prioritize Americans over others. So that's just one example.

And in general, you know, I think there's a strong sense at a lot of universities that even if these values are good and we agree with them, they should come from us, not from the federal government.

MARK BRODIE: Do you have a sense of like what, how universities plan to respond? Like are they going to answer the questions or are they going to, as President Crow suggested, maybe like do a reflection and figure out maybe where they're falling short in some of these areas?

FRANCIE DIEP: Yeah, a few universities have basically indicated that they are going to respond. Crow's statement did sort of suggest that he would respond. The University of Kansas president has said in statements to the media that suggest again that they will also respond.

A lot of it is like, "Oh, we'll talk to our campus community," which probably means consulting with some faculty members and then decide what we'll do.

MARK BRODIE: All right. That is Francie Diep, senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Francie, thanks so much.

FRANCIE DIEP: Thank you.