Trump administration announces agreement with UVA

By Betsy Klein, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has reached an agreement with the University of Virginia, according to an announcement from the Department of Justice, marking the first public university to reach a deal with the White House after months of turmoil.

The university has signed on to Justice Department guidelines on federal funding and discrimination and has agreed to “not engage in unlawful racial discrimination in its university programming, admissions, hiring, or other activities,” the Wednesday announcement said.

Under the terms of the deal, UVA will not pay any financial settlement, unlike previous agreements reached with schools like Columbia University and Brown University to restore those schools’ federal funding.

Nor will UVA have an outside monitor ensuring compliance – which was a key provision of Columbia’s agreement, and one that drew criticism about the federal government’s role on campus. Instead, the Justice Department said, “UVA will provide relevant information and data to the Department of Justice on a quarterly basis through 2028.”

“The agreement does not require the University to make any monetary payments. Importantly, it preserves the academic freedom of our faculty, students, and staff. We will be treated no less favorably than any other university in terms of federal research grants and funding. The agreement does not involve external monitoring,” UVA interim President Paul Mahoney said in a letter to the school community Wednesday evening. “Instead, the University will update the Department of Justice quarterly on its efforts to ensure compliance with federal law.”

In return, the Trump administration will pause ongoing investigations into the school, including its “admissions policies and other civil rights concerns,” the department said. Pending changes to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, the department “will close its investigations against UVA.”

The agreement, which the New York Times first reported earlier Wednesday was close, marks the latest development in the Trump administration’s broader battle over campus oversight, federal funding and academic freedom.

In June, the school’s president, James Ryan, announced his resignation amid pressure from the Department of Justice to dismantle the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Prior to Ryan’s resignation, the university’s board of visitors unanimously voted to scrap its Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Community Partnerships, according to Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office.

But the university’s actions didn’t go far enough for the Justice Department and some conservative groups. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, told CNN at the time that the university began “using a series of euphemisms to simply rebrand and repackage the exact same discriminatory programs that are illegal under federal law.”

Dhillon praised Wednesday’s agreement as “notable” and said in a statement it would “protect students and faculty from unlawful discrimination, ensuring that equal opportunity and fairness are restored.”

UVA is one of seven universities to reject what the Trump administration deemed a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” that would unlock preferential access to federal funding. The offer, initially presented to nine schools earlier this month, included a series of demands, including no longer considering sex and ethnicity in admissions and capping international enrollment.

While there are many areas of agreement in the proposed compact, “we believe that the best path toward real and durable progress lies in an open and collaborative conversation,” university interim President Paul Mahoney said in a statement Friday.

This headline and story have been updated with the Department of Justice’s announcement of an agreement with UVA.

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