Aug. 3 (UPI) — U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent an open letter to American colleges Monday, asking administrators to commit to changes in line with the Trump administration’s higher education agenda before the end of the year.
In it, McMahon asked schools to post statements about various subjects — including academic rigor, free speech and “malign” foreign influence — prominently on their websites, saying it will improve public perception.
It also asks them for statements on prioritizing “American interests” and hiring faculty of “all relevant perspectives.” The Trump administration has previously said colleges and universities are too liberal.
“The dilution of academic standards, opaque admissions policies and a domineering monoculture have badly eroded public trust” in education, McMahon wrote. The letter continues to say that “only full candor and transparency can begin to strengthen the bonds between higher education and the American people.”
This comes a year after the Education Department asked a group of colleges to sign a compact in which it promised funds for schools that embraced its agenda. That compact included limits on international enrollment, a promise to follow the administration’s definitions of biological sex and “consideration of transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle or even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
It also promoted policies “to recognize that academic freedom is not absolute.”
None of the colleges signed the agreement. Several publicly rejected it.
The letter Monday did not include many of these strictures and did not promise the connected advantages in funding and grants, which are usually merit based.
“I know that there is no single template for academic excellence, and I hope we will witness a variety of institutional types, each with distinct missions and priorities, issue landmark declarations of purpose that will revitalize higher education for years to come,” McMahon wrote in Monday’s letter.
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