State lawmakers send letter to ASU regarding President Trump’s higher education compact

PHOENIX (KYMA) - Two state lawmakers sent a joint letter to Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow regarding President Donald Trump's higher education compact.

In the letter, State Representative Brian Garcia (D-District 8) and State Senator Lauren Kuby (D-District 8) are urging Crow to reject President Trump's compact as they claim it "serves as an overreach of the federal government and undermines the charter and academic freedom of the university."

"The immediate impact of agreeing to this compact would likely be a decrease in higher education participation. However, the long-term impact of agreeing to this compact would be setting a precedent that the political party holding the seat of the Presidency could influence the role of academic institutions with a single stroke of a pen," the lawmakers stated in the letter.

The University of Arizona, earlier this week, declined Trump's compact, along with six other universities.

The compact asks the schools to make major policy changes. This includes removing sex and race as factors in admissions, assessing viewpoints of faculty and staff, and preventing transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice.

It also asks universities to have a five-year tuition freeze and place a cap on the number of international students.

To read the letter in full, see attached file.