UA committee seeks wider discussion on Trump’s education plan | Local News

TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) – A University of Arizona committee isn’t taking a side for or against a controversial education proposal from the Trump administration. The independent and elected “Committee of Eleven” is calling for faculty from multiple universities to come together for discussions.

The committee aims to form a group of faculty leadership from the select universities that received the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” The compact asks universities to align with Trump administration priorities in exchange for better funding opportunities.

The University of Arizona’s Faculty Senate has voiced strong opposition to the proposal, as has Tucson City Council. The Committee of Eleven is opting for a more nuanced approach, which would be open to university leadership as well as faculty from schools nationwide. 

“There are things that we don’t feel entitled to decide such as how many genders there are because we don’t know,” Tomas Cerny, an associate professor of engineering, said. “But there are things that we are completely OK with, and it’s fine to articulate this kind of a feedback rather than just saying the binary answer.”

The federal proposal would require universities to disregard gender or race in admissions. The memo, sent to only nine schools, mandates that universities define “male,” “female,” “man,” and “woman” based on biology.

The potential government influence in education has raised concerns among students like Luis Fiool.

“I think that’s scary because maybe it starts with limiting a course or two on like gender studies, but then it pushes a lot on what we can and can’t learn,” Fiool, a UA sophomore, said.

To comply with the compact, universities would also need to limit international student enrollment to 15%. Freshman Sofia Zendeejas supports this idea.

“We have to look at all the illegal immigrants pouring in and we have to make sure that we secure our country before we have other countries pour into ours,” Zendeejas told News 4 Tucson last week.

University of Arizona President Suresh Garimella released a statement this week, vowing to do the best for those at the University of Arizona and the state and keeping the public updated during the process.

The Department of Education is seeking feedback on the proposal by Oct. 20.