UT-Austin considering offer to adopt Trump priorities for funding advantages

The Trump administration has asked the University of Texas at Austin to agree to a “set of operating principles” — which reportedly include adopting a stricter definition of gender, a five-year tuition freeze and a cap on international student enrollment — in exchange for preferential access to federal funding, the University of Texas System confirmed on Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that the Trump administration sent a letter to UT-Austin and eight other universities asking them to join a “compact” that would qualify them for the benefit. The schools would have to ban the use of race and sex considerations in admissions and hiring, cap enrollment of international undergraduate students at 15%, and require applicants to take the SAT or a similar test.

An ABC News affiliate in Boston first published the memo, which The Texas Tribune has reviewed. The Trump administration would also require universities to stay politically neutral, restructure academic programs it says sideline conservative viewpoints, crack down on disruptive protests, refund tuition to students who drop out within the first year, and commit to grading standards that "only rigorously reflect the demonstrated mastery of a subject that the grade purports to represent."

In a statement to the Tribune, UT System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife said the system was honored UT-Austin was selected to be part of the Trump administration’s proposal.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/02/university-texas-austin-trump-administration-compact/