A-School faculty and staff urge rejection of the U.S. Department of Education’s compact

The UVA School of Architecture’s respective councils for faculty and staff have urged Interim President Paul Mahoney and Rector Rachel Sheridan to reject an invitation to sign the White House’s higher education compact. 

Shortly after the Trump administration sent its letter of invitation and the terms, called the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” to the University of Virginia and eight other universities across the nation on October 1, both of the Architecture school’s councils came together with their representative groups to discuss the compact and share views on its impact for the university and higher education at-large.

The proposed compact asks schools to commit to the Trump administration’s goals for higher education in exchange for priority access to federal funding. The compact has drawn widespread opposition from employee groups and students across the nine universities.

The UVA faculty senate on October 3, in a 60-2 vote with 4 abstentions, approved a resolution whose preamble called the compact a danger to the university that runs antithetical to its mission and traditions. It also said the compact “likely violates state and federal law.”

The A-School’s faculty and staff councils agreed to prepare respective statements in opposition to the compact and followed up with a voting process that concluded on Friday, October 10. 

“The contents of the compact include matters of best practices in higher education with which we are always engaged. But the very existence of this compact is a threat to the values of academic freedom to which we are all committed,” the statements read. The groups insist that UVA leadership and the Board of Visitors refuse to discuss or sign the compact in order to uphold academic freedom.

The respective statements received unanimous support by the faculty and majority support by staff at the School of Architecture through the voting process. Both statements were sent on October 13 to Interim President Mahoney, Rector Sheridan, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Brie Gertler, and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer JJ Davis by the council chairs.