Faculty at Pa. university urges leaders to reject Trump compact

By Susan Snyder, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

The University of Pennsylvania’s faculty senate Wednesday joined a growing chorus of concern over the compact proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration, voting overwhelmingly to urge Penn’s leaders to reject it “and any other proposal that similarly threatens our mission and values.”

The one-page document passed by the faculty senate cited concerns over loss of scholarly diversity and academic freedom and criticized the idea of awarding funding to universities based on anything other than “scholarly excellence, scientific merit and societal impact.”

“The ‘Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education’ demands that American universities surrender their institutional autonomy and place themselves under the control of the U.S