CHARLOTTESVILLE (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Faculty members from the University of Virginia’s College of Arts and Sciences weighed in on the Trump administration’s proposed compact with higher education institutions, urging the school’s leadership to reject the compact. The faculty voted overwhelmingly to reject the Trump administration’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which was sent to UVA and eight other universities earlier this week, in a meeting Monday.

Over 150 faculty attended the meeting, with 97% voting to reject the compact, which the Trump administration has requested UVA and others sign in order to get priority access to federal funding. The vote comes on the heels of the UVA Faculty Senate’s resolution opposing the contract on Friday.

The agreement would require universities to cease using race or gender in admissions decisions and would limit international enrollment, among other items.

“Contents of the compact include matters of best practices in higher education with which we are always engaged,” The College’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Ethics said in a statement. “But the very existence of this compact is a threat to the values of academic freedom to which we are all committed.”

The compact comes after the resignation of former University President Jim Ryan, who resigned in May in the face of pressure from the federal government and Department of Justice investigations into the school’s DEI practices.

In the statement, the committee asked the University’s interim president, provost and board of visitors to refuse to discuss joining the compact.

Interim president Paul Mahoney and BOV rector Rachel Sheridan emailed a letter to the university community Monday afternoon, noting that Mahoney had formed a working group to appropriately respond to the compact. The letter also includes a link for community members to share input on the topic.

“The document raises questions of profound importance to the University of Virginia and more broadly to all institutions of higher education in the United States,” the letter reads. “It would be difficult for the University to agree to certain provisions in the Compact. We write to assure you that our response will be guided by the same principles of academic freedom and free inquiry that Thomas Jefferson placed at the center of the University’s mission more than 200 years ago, and to which the University has remained faithful ever since.”

The vote comes as the University’s American Association of University Professors Chapter offered pro bono legal consultation from a Washington D.C. law firm to any professor called to participate in the Department of Justice or University’s compliance review who feels they have been unlawfully target for exercising their rights.