""The university has not agreed to the terms outlined in the draft proposal," Garimella wrote. He emphasized the need to preserve "principles like academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence." At the same time, he said that some of the compact's provisions "deserve thoughtful consideration as our national higher education system could benefit from reforms that have been much too slow to develop," noting that many were already in place at Arizona."
""We have much common ground with the ideas your administration is advancing on changes that would benefit American higher education and our nation at large," he wrote. Still, he took issue with the administration's promise of giving signatories preferential treatment in research funding. "A federal research funding system based on anything other than merit would weaken the world's preeminent engine for innovation, advancement of technology, and solutions to many of our nation's most profound challenges," he wrote to McMahon."
"The University of Arizona is the latest institution to reject an offer to sign on to the Trump administration's "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education," issuing its response on the same day feedback on the proposal was due. While some universities have rejected the compact outright, Arizona president Suresh Garimella announced the decision in a message to the campus community that sent mixed signals."
The University of Arizona declined to sign the Trump administration's Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education and issued its response on the day feedback was due. President Suresh Garimella said the university would not agree to the draft terms and highlighted the need to preserve academic freedom, merit-based research funding, and institutional independence. Garimella noted that some proposals merit further consideration and that several reforms are already in place at Arizona. He indicated openness to constructive dialogue with the federal government while rejecting preferential federal research treatment, asserting that funding must remain strictly merit-based.
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