• Brown University rejects the Trump administration's higher education compact over academic freedom concerns.
• The compact included controversial policies affecting admissions and curriculum autonomy.
• Brown had previously agreed to a $50 million deal with the administration in July.
• Both Brown and MIT expressed that the compact threatens institutional independence.
• The White House indicated schools joining the compact would be rewarded with federal funding.

Brown University President Christina Paxson formally announced the institution's decision to reject a compact proposed by the Trump administration, expressing concerns that the initiative would undermine academic freedom. In a letter addressed to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and other officials, Paxson asserted that accepting the terms "would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance," similar to the stance taken by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which declined the proposal a week earlier, according to Reuters and India Times.

The compact proposed conditions such as capping international undergraduate enrollment at 15% and prohibiting the consideration of race or sex in admissions. These stipulations, according to Paxson, threaten the university's core values and its mission, as outlined in an earlier agreement made with the administration in July, which required a $50 million investment into workforce development projects while preserving academic freedom, reports AA and Reuters.

Paxson emphasized that the previous July agreement affirmed the lack of government authority to dictate Brown's curriculum or academic speech, a principle not reflected in the proposed compact. She further expressed that any future federal funding linked to ideological compliance rather than scientific merit is unacceptable for the university, stating, "while we value our long-held and well-regarded partnership with the federal government, Brown is respectfully declining to join the Compact," according to AA and India Times.